Phantom Gravity
by Mystic Piss
Summary: Team Phantom is dragged off to a ghost hunters convention with the Fentons, unknown are the dangers that inhabit the nearest town of Gravity Falls. When Grunkle Stan acquires a certain relic for his shop, the ghostly beast who lost it comes looking for it. The only problem is, it's not really a ghost. Can they effectively fight the beast without revealing Danny's secret? Or at all?
1. Welcome to Gravity Falls

I don't own Gravity Falls or Danny Phantom. Finished the chapter! I still have no idea where I'm going with this, but I have a few more ideas now. The next chapter might take a bit, since I'm gonna wait until more episodes are out so I can better grasp the characters, the environment, and determine what beastie should appear. I honestly wanted to do the Jersey Devil, but they aren't anywhere near Jersey, so that one's out. Got a list of cryptids though! So you can be sure it'll be something fun.

Also I haven't written anything in like 2 years, so if this is terrible I apologize. And, this is my first fanfiction so bear with me.

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******Welcome to Gravity Falls**

"I can't believe your parents dragged us all the way to Oregon for some stupid Ghost hunting convention." Sam scoffed as we trudged through the thick pine needles layered across the forest floor, crunching under every step. The woods were dense, but not overgrown, and every so often, we'd pass a wooden sign nailed to a tree with some sort of directional arrow or saying. Most of them mentioned what we assumed to be a shop of some kind.

"I can't believe your parents actually let you go, considering they pretty much hate me and my family." I retorted. Sam's family never liked the Fentons. A family of crazy Ghost Hunters didn't fit their idea of good company. The fact that her parents had high standards for companions, didn't help.

I was about to add in that it was her choice to come with us, when…

"Yeah, well, motives aside, I'm more interested in where we are. Are you sure this is the way to town? Can we take a break or something? You guys know I'm not cut out for this kind of exertion." Tucker interrupted.

And he was right. Being a techo-geek, the forest is not his place. It wasn't even his idea, it was Sam's. Tucker had protested the idea until she kicked him in the shin for saying something he shouldn't have. Then he promptly agreed to dodge the wrath of the goth he hadn't meant to rile up in an argument that had quickly gotten off topic.

My two best friends, Samantha Manson and Tucker Foley, (call her 'Samantha' though, and you'll be in a world of hurt) a strong-willed fit vegan who adores nature, and her polar opposite; a carnivorous technophile who prefers to stay indoors and gets winded easily. A tech-free zone, like the middle of the forest for instance, is pretty much his worst nightmare. I'm sure that if his cell phone couldn't pick up the faint signal it has been, he would've gone nuts for being off his PDA for so long.

The two commonly argue about their preferred eating habits, among other things, and I have to jump in and separate them, being the mediator in our trio of friends.

Needless to say, the fact that no arguments have sprung up for the short time we've been walking is nothing short of a miracle.

"Tucker, we've been walking for ten minutes." Sam deadpanned. "And yes, I'm sure."

"It's been a long ten minutes." Tucker replied. He was about to say something else before I cut him off.

"Guys, road." I said as I pointed to the stony, dirt path peeking out from just beyond the treeline. "How about we keep going until there at least? If we see a town or something we'll stop when we get to town, if nothing we'll break there." The two nodded as we changed direction and headed for the path. Casual conversation picked up as we wondered where exactly we were now and how close we were to our intended destination. All we knew was that if we didn't want to stay for the convention, we had to leave quickly, and leave quickly we did.

The convention was to take place in a tent set up on the outskirts of a town called Gravity Falls, so of course, we were headed to town. We had snuck off only moments after Jazz was taken by my parents to be paraded around as their 'beloved daughter' to the other hunters. We knew the three of us were next, being their son and his two 'ghost hunting' buddies, so we ran out of the building and left a note on the RV. Man, if they knew that the three of us really fought ghosts, we'd never hear the end of it. They were always going on about making us their apprentices.

Before long, we reached the road, and were greeted by a lovely sign that blended into the surroundings surprisingly well. More specifically, I tripped over a tree root and ran right into it. Of course something like this couldn't go unnoticed by my friends. After assuring them that I was fine, then getting them to quit laughing, we walked around to the other side of the relatively small billboard.

"Welcome to Gravity Falls" Tucker read aloud. "Well, I guess we're finally in Gravity Falls."

Leave it to Tucker to state the obvious. "And why couldn't we have taken the road here? Was it really necessary to go through that jungle?"

"If we took the road, you would have died. The path was longer." I replied, stepping out of the roadside grass and onto the dirt heading towards town. Tucker knew why we hadn't taken the road when we left, he was just stalling so he didn't have to walk anymore immediately. "C'mon, I wanna see what this 'Mystery Shack' is. And we can grab something to eat."

We continued on, following the road, and began wondering what Gravity Falls was like. It couldn't be THAT different from Amity considering they funded a convention for Ghost Hunters. But it also didn't have paved roads, which was something we weren't as used to. How many people believed in ghosts here? Or were Ghost Hunters considered nuts here too? We knew next to nothing about the place, we didn't even have a proper map. We pinpointed the routes to Gravity Falls in the RV's GPS before we left, so we could have easily gotten lost. In which case, I would've promptly gone ghost and gotten us out of there. Did I mention I was half-ghost? Well, I am. Long story, but I can change from human to ghost at will. Bit of a problem when your parents hunt ghosts. I'm currently their main target, not that they know it's me, but still.

The first building we noticed when we got into town was Greasy's Diner. The roads were still dirt, but there was now a sidewalk, which was a pleasant surprise. We were about to stop by to get a bite to eat, since we had skipped breakfast due to an incident with the morning's ham coming to life, when we noticed a closed sign hanging from the window. _Figures. _Upon further inspection, it seemed the owner was sick and the diner was hence closed today since only one member of the staff had showed up, and they refused to man the diner alone.

We sat down on the curb for a few minutes to rest before Tucker started complaining again. Immediately he dug out one of his PDAs and checked for any sort of connection. To his dismay, nothing.

"What do you think the people will be like?" I asked, trying to spark up another conversation.

Sam looked at me and promptly replied, "Like people."

Well, that was the end of that conversation. "Fine, well then, do you think there'll be any ghosts here?"

We sat thinking about it for a minute before Tucker piped up, "Naturally, or drawn by you or your folks?"

"Either."

"You're gonna get natural portals everywhere, man. So who knows? I doubt we'll see anyone we're used to here though. We're pretty far out of the way from Amity. I can't see any of those guys stalking you all the way here."

"Unless," Sam began, "Your parents decided to bring a portable ghost portal." She paused, then looked at me. "They didn't, did they?"

I shook my head no. "I made sure that whatever portals they did pack, ended up back in the house."

"Well then." She said, getting up, "This should be a ghost-free vacation then, right? And even if one did show up, there's an entire convention of Ghost Hunters that can take care of it."

I nodded, and followed suit. Tucker complained but got up as well, and we headed further into town. There wasn't anything special, a bike shop, a lake (or at least large signs hinting at a lake), a post office, things you would find in any town; and after a few more breaks for Tucker, we decided to head straight to the Mystery Shack which was advertised throughout the place. By now, the small segment of paved road had come and gone and we were once again heading into the woods on a dirt trail, following the plentiful signs that adorned the trees bordering the path.

After a few minutes of walking, a shabby building that read "Mystery Hack" came into view. The 'S' for shack had fallen onto the roof. Everything about the building screamed "Tourist Trap!" from the way it was set up, to the signs and people crowed around it. It seemed like there was some sort of event going on, and there was a red headed teen lazily sitting at a table collecting the entry fee for it. The three of us got in line to ask what was going on.

"Hey, welcome to the Mystery Shack's 'Ghostapalooza', it's $20 to enter the event, and another $20 if you'd like to see the Mystery Shack's museum and visit the giftshop." She droned lazily, she had her feet on the makeshift desk next to a paybox and her nose in a magazine of some kind. You could tell she's been reciting the same line all day.

Decked out in a black and tan bomber hat, jeans and a green plaid shirt. A pair of muddy rainboots completed the ensemble. She looked about our age, so naturally, before we even reached her, Tucker was preparing to flirt.

When we finally reached the table, Tucker stepped up to speak, but was quickly silenced by Sam, via elbow to the ribcage. She then turned and addressed the teen, "We heard what you said before we got here, no need to repeat it. We were wondering what this place is exactly. You said it was a museum?" The girl looked up from her book and nodded. "Museum of what?"

"The supernatural." She stated simply before putting her feet down and sitting naturally in her chair. "Ya' see, Gravity Falls is known for it's supernatural museum and weird, unexplainable things happening, and the Mystery Shack collects anything and everything that can be used to sell that bologna." We shared a look, clearly she was letting us in that this entire thing was a hoax, but after the things we see in Amity Park everyday, who knows what part of it is hoax, and if there's anything truthful to it that people just assumed was a hoax. I was about to ask about it when the girl spoke up again. "I honestly thought everything here was fake, I mean, there's no denying the weird stuff around here, but it wasn't until me and my friends came face to face with a couple of real ghosts," My shoulders drooped. Well there goes the idea of a ghost-free vacation. "That I really wondered how much of it was fake."

We nodded.

"We come from a ghost-infested town, so we were wondering that exact same thing." Sam spoke up and then pointed to me. "This one's actually the son of some ghost hunters in town for that convention." She paused. "I'm Sam."

"Wendy." The girl replied and turned to me. "Ghost hunters, huh?"

"Yeah, it's a real joy." I said sarcastically. "Honestly, I think my parents create more ghost trouble than they clear up." She didn't need to know they were the number one cause of ghost related problems in Amity, due to the portal they built and my dad's incessant need to leave it open. "I'm Danny, by the way."

"And I'm Tucker Foley." _Here it comes_. "T.F, for too fine." He smirked as Wendy rolled her eyes.

"Well, are you guys going in, then?" She asked. The three of us deliberated over it for a minute, then decided.

"It's not like we have anything else to do." I finally said. She nodded, "And we don't want to go back to that convention. My sister's suffering enough for all of us."

She smiled "Well, if you promise to tell me how much of it's fake, I'll let the three of you slide on just $40, for all of you. Grunkle Stan doesn't need to know."

"Grunkle?" Tucker questioned. "Don't you mean, Uncle?"

"Nope, it's Grunkle." Me and Tucker were confused for a moment, yet Sam seemed unfazed at the odd title. "He's the owner." She quickly added.

Sam noticed the look on our faces as we tried to figure out what Grunkle could probably mean, so she clarified that it stood for "Great Uncle" and that she'd heard it used before by some of her relatives. Now that I knew what it meant, it was hard to stop from slapping myself, it sounded so obvious.

Then again...there's a reason I'm a C student.

"Thanks a lot, but…couldn't you lose your job over this?" Sam questioned. Money wasn't really an issue. Sam was filthy rich, if there was anything we couldn't afford here she'd spot us until we could pay her back.

"It's not like he checks to see if the money adds up to the amount of people here or anything. So long as nobody says anything about it, there won't be any problems." Wendy explained. I get the feeling that she didn't follow too many of 'Grunkle Stan's' rules.

Not wanting to argue away a discount we split the $40 between us and headed beyond the desk and into a long tent displayed off to the left. It was filled to the brim with ghost memorabilia, from balls of 'ectoplasm' which was really just specially blown glass, to T-shirts and posters. The larger stuff, like on display wax models and ancient tomes, had stanchions around them to stop children and wandering hands from ruining them. The kicker here, was that everything, and I mean _everything, _was for sale. The larger objects were set up for an auction later in the week, complete with calling numbers adorned from the stanchion ropes. My parents would have a field day in here.

What really pulled it together though was the atmosphere. It was dark for the most-part, minus white lights set up around the tent to display the merchandise. Green lights hung from the top of the tent rods, to create more of a supernatural feeling. All in all, they didn't do a bad job. It was enough to fool anybody who didn't deal with the stuff on a daily basis.

Fortunately for the Mystery Shack, thanks to the ghost convention, tons of gullible fools and amateur or incompetent hunters would soon be flocking to this place, and would buy up everything. How do I know this? My dad's one of them. There are two things in his life he loves enough to spend an entire month's allowance of vacation money on. Ghosts, and fudge. Since fudge is easier to come by, and they spend whatever's left over on parts for their inventions, we rarely have enough money to go on extended family vacations. Any money to make the 'extended' part of it, gets spent in the first day.

Mom's a bit more careful with the money spending, but even she can't keep a handle on dad, especially when she's as obsessed with ghosts as he is. Luckily for our budget, she's pickier with what she buys. If it's authentic though, or looks authentic, anyways; she'll spend as much as dad will, if not more.

This is why Jazz is handling their budget for the next week. Sam, Tuck, and I, each got $100 to spend on food and the like while we're out, and whatever we brought with us to spend on whatever we wanted. Jazz did too, but I get the feeling she won't be buying anything for the next four hours. Or less if she can manage to sneak away.

We left out the end of that tent, and went straight into another one. The tents were attached by an unattractive patch made of a blue tarp. We assumed it was to prevent people from running away with the merchandise.

This tent was large and square, the lights were on, and it gave off more of a shop feel. There were bookshelves and aisles set-up, filled with anything ghost-related you could imagine. Serious books from people who had studied ghosts, including a few written by my parents, picture-books for children, young adult chapter books, even an 'adult' bookshelf. I didn't even want to know about those.

The three of us split up, Tucker went straight for the magazines, Sam went over to look at the nearest 'nonfiction' bookshelf to see if there was anything useful, and I just started going through the shelves of ghostly snow globes and stuffed blobs. They even had ghostly candles. I looked for an Ember one, since that would be very fitting, with her firey hair and all, but of course, the only ghosts here were going to be Halloween-level ghosts. The simple bed sheets, or banshees you usually see around the holiday. Nothing special. It's not like anyone really knew Ember was a ghost to begin with, though; not to mention, this isn't Amity Park, so why would they have ghosts prone to haunting Amity?

I guess I figured that since Amity was becoming more and more famous for certain regulars, that the ghosts would be getting as famous as the town within the community of ghost collectors and whatnot.

I went along the shelves until I came to a set of figurines. I stopped and picked one up; they were your average collectible figurines, made of plastic, with a tiny circular stand that attached to the bottom of it. The thing that made me stop and get a closer look, was that they were _all_ bed sheet ghosts. The names scrawled on the front of the stands in claw-mark fonts read stupid puns, like 'Ghoolio', the bed sheet ghost with sunglasses; or 'Ghastly Claws', which wore a Santa hat. I was half expecting to find a figure of Oogie Boogie hidden within the other figures.

The poses were slightly different for each one, but the expressions were exactly the same. All happy. That was a pleasant surprise. I was still digging through the figures to see what other holidays and people were mutilated into these cheaply-made figures, when Tucker called me out of my trance. I set down the three figures I was holding as he called again.

"C'mon dude, you gotta see this!" I quickly ran over to him and Sam who had gotten there as I was messing around. He quickly held out a copy of 'Paranormal monthly' which sported a nice picture of my face. I paled.

I grabbed it out of his hands, it was a picture of me and my sister; Our parents behind us with their arms held out in a fashion befitting a magician after a trick. I can just hear them shouting, "Surprise!"

The headline read "Fentons get panel at the Ghastlycon" and in smaller text, "Ask the world's leading experts on ghosts whatever you want to know!" I was dumbstruck. When did they send this photo in? Why did it have to be a family photo, they sent in? We never agreed to this! Once again, Tucker broke me out of my thoughts.

"Look, man, if you turn to page 25, you can take a quiz to see if you'll make it as a ghost hunter!" I glared at him.

"Not funny, Tuck. How would you like your face on the cover of a _ghost hunting_ magazine? And a national one at that?" Sam grabbed the magazine out of my hands and flipped through it, to reveal an article, on none other than my other half. Apparently while I was out of it, she was reading the highlights on the cover. The title was of course, "Inviso-bill, hero or hoodlum".

"Hear the facts from the mouths of local citizens from Amity Park, and the Fentons themselves." She read aloud before flipping through the article. The next time she spoke, she spoke in a quieter tone, "Well, there's only one relatively good photo of you, and it's from the back during a battle with Skulker. The others are either blurred from movement or while you were going intangible. Nothing to connect you with that." She closed the magazine and pointed to my face. I sighed with relief.

"Speaking of that," she continued, her finger still on the magazine picture of me, "How did it happen?" It was obvious to anybody that this picture was taken recently, since we were next to the wall calendar. And it was dated today. Right day, right year, and a huge red circle surrounding today's date with "CON" written in red in big letters. I smacked my forehead. How could we have missed that?

As if on cue, Sam's other hand moved so she could tap the calendar in the background. I sighed. "Last month, you remember when I wasn't allowed to come over for some family gathering?" They nodded as Sam lowered the magazine. "Well, our aunt and some of our cousins were over, and because they rarely visit, they said they wanted a family photo of us. Now, my aunt on my dad's side is a professional photographer, so we didn't think anything of it, just went over for the picture to get it over with." I scratched the back of my neck, a habit of mine. "I'm guessing it was all staged for this stupid thing." I removed my hand and gestured to the magazine. "They knew we'd never have agreed to be on a ghost hunting magazine on our own." Jazz was going to be furious.

I sighed and took the magazine from Sam. "I'm buying this." Both my friends looked at me in disbelief. I held up the magazine, "Something tells me Jazz won't be too pleased to see this either. And I'm going to make sure she sees it. We're going to have a nice talk with our parents." A look of realization appeared on their faces before we all smirked and went back to browsing.

Nothing much else in the shop seemed to interest us, a corner of the tent was dedicated to Halloween themed items, such as bats, ravens, tombstones, which of course, Sam spent the rest of the time in the shop before we left, in.

Leaving through a door off to the very right of the entrance, we finally reached the shack of the Mystery Shack, and the wonders within it. We ended up in a group with several other people, and had to wait for a few more before the group could move into the museum. When we left with Stan who had come to collect us, an employee named Soos kept the next group behind the lines until our tour was over.

The start of it, wasn't anything special. A few paintings of cryptid creatures, and then a stuffed Pterodactyl that was clearly fake. Well, clear to the three of us, I should say. The other tourists were eating it up.

The next creature was a Jackalope, which looked to be made out of a rabbit, deer antlers and a beaver, of all things. Of course this one looked real, but then again, it was probably just made of real animals. Real or not, it made Sam cringe, so it was realistic enough, I guess.

After a few other beasts, we made it to the Sascrotch. Think of Bigfoot in briefs. Naturally, the three of us burst out laughing, and quickly got yelled at by Stan and the other tourists for, "not showing respect for such a mighty creature," which didn't help and made us laugh harder.

When we moved on, we were in the gift shop at the end of the tour, and Stan had ended up behind the cash register. We looked around again, taking in the sights, large crystals, stone tablets, your average merchandise, a Gryphon head trophy, a mermaid skeleton in a fish tank, even a deer head trophy with batwings for ears. The shop itself was stocked with items that were…well they were interesting. I don't know what it was, but something in this shop gave me the creeps. And when you're a half-ghost hybrid who fights all kinds of dangerous ghosts on a daily basis, it's not easy to get creeped out.

Eventually we found ourselves at the temporary ghost section where we were hit with another surprise. Danny Phantom. Danny Phantom figurines, Danny Phantom stuffed toys, Danny Phantom shirts. And my friends were buying one of everything. I couldn't help but let out a groan, and mumbled, "I didn't approve any of this." which caused them both to let out a small laugh.

"C'mon, Danny, get something for your sister, it's not like we have any of this stuff back in Amity." Tucker reasoned. He was obviously amused by the fact that I not only have a fan club in Amity Park, consisting of the very people who hate Fenton, mind you; but a fan club that had to be much larger than that for merchandise to have been made. I picked up one of the stuffed Me's, and looked it over. The tag said, "Amity park's hero, Danny Phantom."

"Well, at least they got my name right." I mumbled absentmindedly. I looked back the shelves to see an 'Invisobill' stationary set. _Well that lasted long, _I thought. "Who the heck funded all this garbage?" I said a little louder.

"Maybe Vlad did, to annoy you." Sam offered, I rolled my eyes. There wasn't a mention of Vladco. on any of this junk, but I wouldn't put it past him. Annoyed by the weird feeling of staring at tiny versions of myself, and completely ignoring the weird vibes I got from the shop itself; I headed over to check out, Sam and Tucker following behind, their arms full of my memorabilia.

I put the magazine and doll on the desk, and went to get out my wallet, when Stan did a double take from the magazine to me. "What?" I asked before I realized I was on the magazine, "Oh yeah." I grumbled and dug into my pockets once again. The sound of movement caught my attention and I saw Sam and Tuck head over to another register manned by a kid. He looked maybe ten, and I wondered why a ten year old was allowed to work a register.

"So, kid." Stan called to me.

I looked up from my wallet and waited, he looked like he was about to speak when a tiny girl jumped up out of the blue from behind the counter and scared the crap out of the both of us. Stan grabbed his chest, and I jumped, we both yelped, which caused everyone to look at us. Luckily, there weren't many people left in the store besides the three of us and the staff. "Hey!" She shouted. "You're that guy! On the magazine!" I nodded, still in a bit of shock. She turned her attention to Stan, "Grunkle Stan! He's from that ghost convention! Can we go if we go with him? Pleeeeease?!"

Stan sighed and pinched his nose, "Yeah, C'mon Grunkle Stan, we've been working here all day." The kid from the other register pleaded; Stan looked over at him and scowled. "Plus we can advertise the Mystery Shack and draw in more customers." he quickly added. It was as if a cash register dawned in Stan's eyes.

"Yeah, sure, go go. Make sure you hand out these flyers." He pulled out a stack of flyers and set them down next to the register. "And cash those kids out, before ya' go." He moved out of the way as the girl walked up to the register to cash me out in lightning speed. Granted I only had two items, but still.

"I'm Mabel." She smiled, "That's my brother Dipper." She pointed to the kid at the other register. "And that'll be $23.50." And she bagged the magazine and toy as I bent to the floor to pick up my wallet, which I dropped in the confusion.

"I'm Danny, and that's Tucker and Sam." I said pointing at them when I said their names, and then handed her the money. She gave me back the change and was about to say something, when I yelled at Tucker to come over and cash out since we'd be here a while if they both had to go through the same line. I hadn't realized she was about to speak until I was mid-sentence, so I apologized for interrupting and then stepped out of the way so Tucker could get through.

I ended up waiting for three minutes because some of the Danny Phantom stuff wasn't tagged I guess. Sam finished before Tucker, and both her and Dipper came over to sit near me on the floor next to, you guessed it. The wall of me. Which, just so happened to be close to the exit.

One look at Mabel and Dipper and you could tell they were siblings, not something easily recognizable between me and Jazz. They both had brown hair and the same face shape, Jazz and I couldn't look any more different. I noticed that Dipper's attire seemed to fit the rest of Oregon's woodland feel, a blue vest, orange T-shirt, shorts, and a hat from the shop. Mabel's…not so much. A bright blue shirt with a kitten on it, a headband, and a short skirt. Her outfit looked as out of place in the woods as I felt throughout this entire ordeal. I mean, really. A ghost at a ghost hunter's convention? My life was at stake just being there, and now we had to go back with these kids. Great.

How did we get into this mess? I don't want to go back to that place, and I doubt Sam or Tucker do either. Maybe we could get these kids to give us a tour of Gravity Falls or something…

"So, you two are coming back to the convention with us, huh?" Sam asked to break the silence. "Does that mean we're responsible for the two of you?" A good question. If we were, this could spell disaster if anything happened at the convention, or if a ghost showed up and I had to fight it.

"I doubt it." Dipper replied. "We're both 12 and Grunkle Stan doesn't really watch us to begin with. The only reason we weren't allowed to go sooner was because there was no one to watch the shop."

"Wouldn't there be no one to watch the shop now?" I asked.

"He'll probably just drag Soos out of the tent to come watch the shop. He managed this place just fine before we got here." Another awkward silence.

"Does this place ever give you the heebie-jeebies?"

Without looking away from whatever he was focused on, he replied, "All the time." After a bit of a pause and a look of concern from Sam in my direction, he continued, "Though I usually get it out in the woods. And there's usually a reason for it."

"Reason?" Sam questioned.

"Yeah. Like the supernatural stuff in the shop is fake, but the rumors of that kind of stuff living around here isn't." After a small pause, he looked over at me and frowned. "You think I'm crazy don't you?"

I shook my head, "No, we don't. I was just wondering what made you think you could tell us and _not_ think you were crazy. We're not from around here."

"Mabel said you were from that ghost convention. And you bought all that ghost stuff." He gestured to the bags. "Where _are_ you from exactly?"

"Amity Park, Illinois. The town known for being infested with ghosts." I paused. "Believe me, we've run into our fair share of the supernatural."

Before I could add anything else, a distinct "Hey guys!" came from Mabel as her and Tucker walked over. Now that I could see exactly how many bags each of them had bought, I guessed Tucker bought some of that junk for Jazz. He had two bags where Sam had one.

"We ready to go?" She asked excitedly. I had a bad feeling about her and Sam's personalities clashing. Sam didn't do well with the brighter side of the personality spectrum. Her and her parents' daily wars are proof of that. Then again, her and Jazz seemed to get along well, now, so I guess anything is possible.

I nodded, and then spoke. "Could you guys give us a bit of a tour around? Ya'know, before we walk into the convention hall?"

"You mean, before we march off to our doom?" Tucker corrected.

"Yes. That."

The twins looked at us confused, so Sam explained. "We snuck out of there before Danny's parents could effectively parade us around as the ghost hunting apprentices they think we are. His sister was caught. We couldn't save her."

"I don't know if she'll make it out of there alive." I said with as much seriousness as I could muster. Mabel laughed.

"Okie Dokie! We'll show you around first, and then you'll show us around the convention." She bargained. The three of us groaned. We were hoping we could just skip the convention, since we get enough of ghosts back home. The universe is never kind to us.

"Fine." We all answered simultaneously. There was no way out of this now. We were going to that convention, and we didn't have much choice in the matter. This was going to be a long day.

* * *

First chapter, done!

I don't know anything about the second chapter except that it'll be in Dipper's POV because everything in Danny's view seems boring.

And they think differently. Dipper's smart; Danny, not so much.

Man, after writing so many essays, writing in first person is hard. Maybe chapter 3 on might be 3rd person. I don't know. I'm really just making this up as I go along.

Feel free to bring up errors, and review please!

Oh and this whole, no indenting thing, is killing me.

Also, a big thank you to ChopSuzi for correcting me on the whole Grunkle meaning Great Uncle issue.


	2. Shady Things

Thank you all for the reviews!

And to more specific guests that I couldn't respond to;

Guest: You haven't even seen Dipper's POV yet, he might be just as boring as Danny xD  
Though I'm pretty sure the only reason Danny's POV was boring was because there wasn't much going on besides setup.  
I've figured out though, that the story will switch views between the two as needed, with Danny giving us a little more insight into the situation that Dipper couldn't possibly know.

Coopt98: That would make for a really interesting story. If the book wasn't currently wrapped in mystery, it probably would play a much larger role in this story. It's kinda hard writing about something that even the characters who own it don't know xD

P.S. If anyone ends up out of character, let me know and I'll try to fix it.

I hate it when people are out of character.

* * *

**Shady Things**

We were all prepared to leave, Sam had stuffed her purchases into her backpack, as had Danny. Tucker tried, but soon realized only one bag would fit, the other he'd have to carry and he wasn't too pleased with that. Before we could get one foot out the door though, Sam pulled Tucker and Danny away to a corner of the store behind a shelf to talk or something.

"What do you think that's about?" I asked Mabel who looked as confused as I felt. What couldn't they say in front of us that they hadn't already mentioned?

"Lets go find out." Before I could protest, she pulled me over to the shelf they were behind and we hid as soon as we realized it was about the shop. Peering through the cracks in the hastily made shelving, I couldn't help but notice that while Danny and Sam were arguing, Tucker was turned away holding up his PDA and pointing it at various areas of the store looking for a signal of some kind.

"Don't worry about it Sam, I'm sure it's nothing." I heard Danny say, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Don't worry? How can I _not_ worry? Danny, when you get creepy feelings, it usually means something bad. I want to know what it is before this gets out of hand!"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait just a minute, so Danny gets a bad feeling and instead of steering clear of the danger, you want us to find it? I know we're more than capable, but come on! I thought this was gonna be a vacation!" Tucker piped up as he turned to face the group, lowering his PDA in the process. Sam turned her attention to him and glared before returning her attention to Danny. She opened her mouth to speak, but Danny cut her off.

"Sam, don't worry about it. Dipper works here, obviously it's nothing to worry about if he gets the same feeling from this place. Who says we can help with whatever it is anyway? For all we know this place could've been built on an Indian burial ground or something."

"Oh don't give me that. He said he usually gets the feeling out in the woods and there's a reason for it. If he got the feeling here constantly then there wouldn't _be_ anything to worry about!"

"The key word here is usually, Sam. The Mystery Shack and everyone in this town know how to survive these things, so we shouldn't get involved. For all we know it's a natural occurrence. And besides that, we don't have any leads even if we _wanted_ to investigate. This isn't Amity Park, ya'know!"

"I know it's not Amity Park! What does that have to do with anything?"

Tucker who had wandered off during the fight, returned with something in his hands and interrupted the two, "He means that we don't know anything about this place. And besides," He held up his hands revealing a blood red flower with dark purple leaves. At the sight of it, Danny seemed to pale and backed up into the shelf. "I think I found the reason for his discomfort."

I heard Sam mutter something that sounded a lot like, "Blood blossoms." and she looked worriedly at Danny before a look of realization chased away her worry. She turned her attention to Tucker, "But wait, Danny's never gotten uncomfortable around Blood Blossoms before, why would it start now?"

"Uh, hello? Pretty uncomfortable here!" Danny almost shouted, but was ignored completely by his two friends.

"Well if they have Blood Blossoms, they might have some trinket that's causing the feeling. It might not be anything to worry about for humans at all."

"It might just be something that would bother Danny." Sam continued. She looked in thought before she sighed, "We probably should just leave then, especially if they have anything else here that could hurt him."

We took that as our cue to quietly get up and walk around the bookshelf like we had just come to get them.

"You guys alright?" Mabel asked, and out of the corner of my eyes I saw Tucker haphazardly chuck the flowers behind him in an attempt to hide them. Before anyone could respond to my sister's question I figured I'd take the opportunity to ask.

"What did you just throw?"

Sam quickly elbowed Tucker in the ribs, and he cringed. I expected Sam to speak up, but it was Danny who answered. "Some flowers I'm allergic to." He turned to Tucker, "Go wash your hands before you accidentally punch me or something. I don't want to break out in a rash again."

Tucker blinked a moment before asking where the bathroom was, which I promptly agreed to show to him. On the way there I spoke up again. "Those were Blood Blossoms, right?" He tensed. "Grunkle Stan mentioned them once." I lied. I actually remembered seeing them on a page in the book while I was skimming. I don't remember anything about them except that they warded off something and are supposed to be good to eat. Either way, anything mentioned in the book can't be good. And if it wards off something in the book, I don't think it's just a coincidence that Danny's allergic to them. "All I know is they're edible. Is there anything else to them, or is Danny's reaction just that bad?"

"He..uh..he's just got a really bad reaction to them." It was obviously a lie, but I wasn't going to push it any further. There's something going on here. When we get back tonight, I'm consulting the book about this.

The five of us left as soon as we got back to the group, and we decided to go to the convention first, much to the frustration of the elder kids. We pointed out some places in town along the way, like the town hall, history museum, fire hall, and as we were about to leave town, someone started yelling for us. Or rather Danny.

"DANNY!" A tall redhead came into view, running like her life depended on it. "Danny, run!" She ran towards us, grabbed his hand and started pulling him in the opposite direction.

"Jazz? What's wrong? What's going on?"

"They're testing out weapons!" That was enough to make him pale.

He turned to us, and said "We'll explain later, you don't wanna go there right now. Let's go!" And with that we turned on our heel and headed back into town and around the corner into a woodland clearing, jogging the whole way.

When we reached the clearing, Tucker and Jazz flat out collapsed. Everyone was panting heavily, save for Danny and Sam who only seemed to be slightly winded. Because of this, Sam was the one who spoke up first. "What the heck happened to you, Jazz?"

What did happen? For the first time since we came across her, I actually took in her appearance. Her hair was matted with debris, and she was covered with dirt and a tiny bit of blood on her right knee, whose pant leg was torn, probably from a fall.

"Mom and, mom and dad thought, it would be a good idea, to bring a ghost to the convention. To test weaponry on." She said gasping the whole way. Danny must've just noticed her knee, because he grabbed a water bottle and a first aid kit from Sam's bag and started cleaning her wound. "And that ghost, happened to be Skulker." Danny spilt a little water and looked at her in shock, which quickly turned to anger.

"So Skulker did this to you?"

"What? Oh, no." She sat up and took the gauze from him, bandaging her knee herself. "I got caught in the crossfire of a couple hundred ghost hunters and their prey. Add in the fact that some of the weaponry was still experimental, and it was a complete disaster. I actually feel bad for Skulker." Her expression changed from pity to rage as she glared at Danny. "I can't believe you guys just left me there! Do you know how embarrassing that was? Being paraded around like that to a bunch of loons?!"

Danny winced and pulled out the magazine he bought. "Sorry, but get a load of this."

The moment she spotted their faces on the cover she growled, "I can't believe this. We're going to have a little talk with them when we get back to Amity."

"Definitely. Also, I got you a gift," At the mention of a gift, her head perked up, she was still angry, but she took a deep breath and seemed to calm down. Danny handed her the bag with the stuffed doll, which she opened quickly and stared at with wide eyes.

"Okay, this is absolutely adorable." Danny blushed for some odd reason, and told her to shut up, to which she quickly replied, "Oh come on, how many times do you get to see your baby bra-"

"AHEM." Sam loudly cleared her throat, drawing everyone's attention to her and successfully interrupting Jazz's sentence, and then pointed to me and Mabel who had been silent through the whole thing.

Jazz's eyes widened in shock, "Oh. I-I didn't notice them before." She turned to Danny, "Friends of yours?"

Danny breathed a sigh of relief, and nodded. "Jazz, this is Dipper and Mabel; Dipper and Mabel, my big sister Jazz."

Mabel held out her hand, "Nice to meet you Jazz. I'm the older sister too."

"Yeah, by like 5 minutes." I scoffed, earning a smile from Jazz and a smirk from my sister.

"It counts."

Before I could say anything, someone's stomach growled. Since Jazz spoke up first, I'm guessing it was her's.

"As adorable as this is," She started, earning a 'Hey, I'm not adorable' from me, "I'm starving. I've been running around the convention tent for over an hour trying to find my way out, avoid our parents, and dodge projectiles at every turn. Mind if we take this chat to a restaurant or something?"

"I second that." Tucker mumbled from his current faceplant. He lifted his head to speak, "We were supposed to eat earlier, but the diner was closed."

"So we'll take you back to the shack!" Mabel said enthusiastically. "We can go to the convention tomorrow. It lasts all week, right?" They nodded. "Good, then we don't have to worry about it today. And I can show you where the we fought off bloodthirsty wax figures!" Jazz raised an eyebrow at that statement. "And tomorrow we can show you the tomb of the 8 1/2th president of the United States!"

"Wait, wait, bloodthirsty wax figures? 8 1/2th president? Are you sure you didn't hit your head?" Jazz asked skeptically. I didn't blame her. It does sound crazy.

Mabel was going to object, but Danny beat her to it, "Jazz, think about what you just asked."

"Don't tell me you believe that!"

"How can't we?" It was Sam this time. "We live in a town infested with dead people, we've traveled through time, our town was abducted by the Ghost King, we're friends with a yeti and a werewolf from the 1800s that doesn't even speak English, and your family is being terrorized by a half-dead billionaire who wants to get with your mom. Nothing sane about any of that, is there?"

There was a long pause before Jazz spoke up again. "Alright fine, you're right. Of all people I guess I don't have any right to judge considering our life. That doesn't make it sound any less crazy though."

And with that, we got up and headed back to the Mystery Shack. I was quiet the whole way back. Was all that stuff true? It seemed like it with the way everyone acted, but how can anyone be half-dead? None of this makes sense, especially with the Blood Blossom thing. There's something going on here, and I plan on getting to the bottom of it.

When we reached the Mystery Shack, the tent was closed, and the ticket booth empty. I'm guessing that either something happened or people stopped coming. We got our answer when we walked into the Mystery Shack via the back door. Grunkle Stan stood at the other end of the shop with Soos and Wendy and was about to pull a sheet off of some artifact he got the other day, when he spotted us and waved us over.

"Oh these kids again, who's the new one?" He looked at Jazz and continued before anyone could answer him. "Oh never mind, get a load of this thing!" He pulled the tarp off, and the lighting seemed to dim, causing Danny to jump and I could've sworn for a split second, the temperature dropped. The tarp revealed a really old headstone, which looked ancient. It was impossible to tell if there was anything carved into it at any point, because it was so weathered, any potential letters could be mistaken for water trails, and it was covered in moss. Everything seemed darker around the rock, not a lot, I barely noticed it. "Some old guy dropped it off for the auction on friday. Says the thing comes from a haunted graveyard in England. Should definitely sell well. Gonna triple the starting price because of all those morons here for the convention." He turned to Danny and his friends. "No offense." Danny didn't take his eyes off the rock. He was really wary of it actually, even when Jazz swung her arm around his shoulders and insisted it wasn't a problem, he didn't take his eyes off it. Like he was afraid of it.

Sam and Tucker noticed this too, and exchanged a worried glance before Sam walked up and took the tarp from Grunkle Stan, "Well you know," she began as she swung the tarp over the rock, "You should keep it covered so nobody sees it, it'll be more valuable if it's revealed on the spot." she seemed kind of nervous, and Danny still hadn't taken his eyes off the rock, despite it now being covered.

"You're right! Great idea, girlie. Anyway, I'm heading out. Wendy and Soos, you get the tents cleaned before the next batch of suckers come." Grunkle Stan warned, "Now." He watched them leave before he headed out as well, shouting, "You know where everything is!"

As soon as he left, all eyes were on Danny, who was still eyeing the rock, like it'd attack at any moment. "Danny?" Tucker questioned, he stepped forward and tripped, before he could put his hand on the rock to steady himself, Danny leapt into action, grabbed his wrist and dragged him away from it. "Dude, what's the big idea?"

"You didn't see it?" He asked. Momentarily taking his eyes off the rock to look him in the eye.

"See what?"

"There was a..I don't know how to describe it, black aura, I guess, that moved the tarp when you got too close. Same with when Grunkle Stan first grabbed the tarp. And when he removed it, that creepy feeling I got earlier intensified."

"Did anybody else feel the temperature drop, when the tarp was removed?" I asked.

Turns out everybody did. "I just thought it was Da-" Tucker started, but got silenced by Sam, who stomped on his foot.

"The lights didn't reflect off it either." Sam pointed out. "Even though there's a light directly above it."

"Well it did come from a haunted graveyard. Maybe it's cursed?" Jazz offered.

"I don't know, but I wouldn't touch it, there's something…sinister about it. Who knows what it could do." He paused. "Can we go somewhere else? Like, another room or something?"

"Yeah. We gotta get something to eat anyway. Oh! And we can race syrups!" Mabel brightened, successfully drawing everyone's attention to her, even Danny's for a split second. Then she led us out of the room and into the kitchen.

The rest of the night was really fun. Turns out the rock's weird aura, or whatever was making Danny uncomfortable, wasn't strong enough to reach the other rooms in the house. We played some games (Mabel won the syrup races of course, but Tucker put up a good fight. Jazz refused to participate), and figured things out for the rest of the week.

Tomorrow was Wednesday, and we were going to meet up at three to go to the convention for a few hours, since Danny and Jazz's parents would be teaching back to back seminars until nine. Thursday we'd all go to Scuttlebutt or hiking. And Friday we'd just hang out until they all left at one. Wendy returned halfway through the evening to let us know she was off work, and her and Jazz made separate plans, and would skip the convention in favor of girl bonding or something like that. Sam was going to meet up with Jazz and Wendy Thursday after the hike. Mabel had no idea if she was going with the girls or staying with us, but we had a basic outline at least.

We shared stories about our respective adventures, and how they were friends with various ghosts. We showed them the copy machine, and Tucker copied his PDA, which surprisingly, worked like a charm. We had to stop him because he wanted to tear the machine apart to see if he could build one himself. And then we settled down to watch the new episode of Tiger Fist.

After they left, I headed upstairs to consult the book about the Blood Blossoms. It took me about an hour to find it because I kept skipping the section involving them. Which just so happened to be ghosts. "Hey Mabel, get a load of this. 'Blood Blossoms, a close relative to the rose, known for it's ability to immobilize ghosts with pain. A ring of them works great as a natural shield, as no ghost will be stupid enough to cross into the ring, knowing that they would not be able to move until all of the Blood Blossoms are disposed of. If a ghost is trapped within the ring, the blossoms will slowly poison it, and they can't do a thing about it. The ghost will die if left in for too long. It seems to be a very painful way to go, and the screams are unbearable to listen to. Another way to kill a ghost using Blood Blossoms is for them to consume the plant or liquid from the plant, this seems to be much less painful. The strong aura propelled by the blossoms is enough to pain the ghost by being too close to it, and the residue from the plant can cause a very painful rash to spread across the infected area.' Apparently, they're good to eat for humans too, and they're like garlic to Vampires. Eat enough of them and no ghost will touch you because it changes the property of the oil in the skin."

"What about it?"

"Remember Danny's reaction to them? He was worried about a rash and wouldn't go near them." Apparently Mabel knew where I was going with this.

"Dipper, come on, he's a nice person!"

"You said the same thing about Norman, and he turned out to be a bunch of gnomes!"

"Well this is different!"

"No, it's really not. Look, Danny mentioned he'd break out in a rash if Tucker's hands touched him, and he wouldn't go anywhere near them as soon as he saw them! These flowers are harmless to humans, the book says so itself!" I reasoned. "And on top of that, what's with that Danny Phantom guy they told us about? I doubt it's just a coincidence that they're both named Danny, I mean, he just _happens_ to be allergic to a known ghost repellant. Not to mention, they seem to know an awful lot about Phantom's life. And what was that weird reaction with the rock? He seemed so transfixed on it, I mean, yeah it was weird, but not weird enough to warrant that."

"Dipper, for one thing, the book also says not to trust anyone from Gravity Falls, yet we both trust Grunkle Stan, and Wendy and Soos and everybody. Not to mention, they aren't even from Gravity falls. Second, these could just be coincidences, and they _are_ best friends with Phantom. And third, what are we going to do about it? Saying that you're right, _which _I doubt you are, and he is actually a ghost, he's not hurting anybody."

"You don't know that. He could be just like those ghosts at the Dusk2Dawn, nice until something sets him off. And he certainly seemed wary of that rock. Everyone noticed weird things about it, but nobody saw the aura…thing, he was talking about. And-"

"Hey, hey, slow down. I doubt he's dead anyway. Just look at him. He's not cold, he's obviously not transparent, he's nothing like those ghosts in the Dusk2Dawn. He could just actually be allergic to Blood Blossoms, like how there are people who are allergic to water. Besides, his parents are ghost hunters, don't you think they would've noticed something if their son was a ghost?"

"I guess…What was with those weird reactions though? Where they just stopped talking."

"Dipper, stop worrying. Whatever it is, if they want us to know they'll tell us. They're good people."

"I know, they're really nice, but they're definitely hiding something and it's bothering me."

"What they're hiding, really isn't any of your business Dipper. For all we know, whatever it is might be for the same reason you hide your birthmark." Mabel spoke up.

"Yeah, I guess you're right." I sighed. I doubt it's anything small like that, otherwise the topic wouldn't come up enough for them to cut each other off to hide it. Whatever this secret is, it's big. Even if he isn't a ghost, he could be something else. Afterall, I did mistake a bunch of gnomes for a zombie. "I guess I'll go to bed, then. Maybe it'll stop all these stupid ideas. I mean really, how can you not notice somebody's a ghost?"

"Exactly. They're weird, but they're not _that _weird. They aren't even Mabel weird!"

I laughed, "Alright. G'Night Mabel."

"Night."

* * *

AUGH. I had to re-write this chapter like, three times.

The mystery beastie should make it's appearance next chapter, feel free to take guesses when you review.

If you guess correctly, then on the chapter where the cryptid is revealed in all it's glory (which may or may not be chapter 4), I'll mention you in the notes.

I'm trying to give every character speaking roles, and keep them active, but too many dishes spoil the meal; so I'm cutting Wendy and Jazz to more minor roles (not like they'd have large roles anyway, but still), and poor Tucker and Mabel are getting a little left out. In my defense though, the one time Mabel was probably chattering away, Dipper tuned everything out to think. Well, not including when he's thinking back on the evening.

Anyway, did anyone get the title? Shady Things, like shade, plants, blood blossoms...Dipper's suspicions...

Well I thought it was clever.

Until next time!


	3. Questions without answers

Hey dipper, hate to break it to you, but you're focusing on the wrong problem.  
Anyways.

Thanks to everyone for the reviews! I appreciate the compliments! Glad you like the story!

Matt: Actually that's gonna be the conspiracy part of this Gravity Falls 'episode'. You'll never hear it from me who the mystery donator was. At least not in this story. ;P  
Love the idea of it being Vlad, but I can't put too much detail into the origins of the headstone (or rather how it got there) now without drawing away from the story too much.  
And no, sadly Gideon will not be making an appearance. If he had, it would've been before this chapter, because this is where it starts heatin' up. Literally.

Keep the reviews comin guys! Each one makes me smile.  
*Cue Sam gagging*

* * *

**Questions without answers**

We left the Mystery Shack around 9 o'clock, and no sooner did the door shut, before…

"Danny…"

I knew it was coming. We hadn't talked about it since it happened. "How much of that was you back there?"

I looked to her. "Jazz, I'm only responsible for the temperature drop." I scratched the back of my neck, suddenly uncomfortable. "And besides, I couldn't really help myself. That thing sent chills down my spine…"

"Dude, you sent chills down all our spines." Tucker chuckled. "I guess that's what happens when you freak out a ghost with an ice core though."

"What exactly was going on in there?" Sam asked.

"I honestly don't know." I began. "Well, you saw how that thing sucked at the lights, right?" They all nodded slightly. "And you didn't see the black firey aura surrounding it?" They shook their heads no. "Then you didn't feel the heat either?"

"What heat? All we felt was the cold from you." Jazz piped up, obviously confused. Before I could explain what I meant, she spoke up. "Wait-a-minute, that sent off your ghost sense, right? And only you could see the flames?" It was my turn to nod. "Well then it has to be a ghostly artifact of some kind. Did it feel malevolent?"

"Jazz, it's a rock. How could it feel malevolent?" I asked as sarcastically as I could manage. It wasn't that it felt malevolent or evil at all, it felt like a void. Like a void that would suck up anything that touched it and burn it to nothing. There was no consciousness, just….a slight feeling of empty-ness. Like it was missing something, or there was only a part of it there.

"Then why did you grab my arm like that?" Tucker asked me, rubbing his wrist for emphasis. "That hurt!"

"Because." How do I describe that? That the fire you couldn't see could've potentially burned you and dragged you into a pocket-space of darkness? That barely makes any sense! "Because I had a really bad feeling about it. And with my enhanced senses, you know I know these things. Who knows what it could've done!"

"He's got a point, Tuck. It could've burned you or something." Sam backed me up. Did she get the same feeling off it? How could she have known that? "Danny _did _say there was a firey aura that we couldn't see, and it's not like ghostly things we can't sense haven't hurt people in the past." Oh. That's how. Of course she wouldn't have gotten the same feeling, she's just a perceptive person.

The brain of a C-student strikes again.

"Wait wait, back it up. I thought you said it was sinister?" I looked at Jazz with a dumbfounded look on my face.

"Yeah, Jazz, I'm just going to tell Dipper and Mabel I'm half-ghost and it rubbed me the wrong way. How else could I have told them to stay away from it?" I waited for her to say something. When I realized she wasn't going to, I continued. "Whatever it is, it's bad news, and I couldn't exactly explain that whatever it is might not even effect humans."

"You don't think it could effect humans?"

"I don't know what to think." I sighed. "It's not like anything else I've ever felt before. And it's obviously ghostly in nature if my ghost sense went off. None of you even felt the heat, or saw the flames. Maybe it's like Freakshow's staff or something."

"Or maybe it's just not concentrated enough for humans to sense." Sam offered. At this idea, we all stopped walking and looked to her. "Well, he does have better senses than all of us, and it _was_ removed from a haunted graveyard." She paused. "Maybe whatever was haunting this thing was uprooted, and Danny's sensing the residual aura or whatever, left behind from being tethered to it for who knows how long?"

It made sense. It definitely fit the empty feeling I got from it. It could've been the leftover loneliness from the ghost that was stuck to it or something. Like how my parents described ghosts as a leftover consciousness.

When nobody said anything, Sam spoke up again. "Like a poltergeist." When we exchanged confused looks, she sighed and continued again. "A poltergeist is a being generally created from intense negative emotion. Rage is a good example; and they're usually manifested when that emotion is released all at once. Like, if someone was angry and wanted revenge for something, if that anger wasn't allowed to dissipate, that anger will build and can take form, and their current consciousness could imprint on the poltergeist, causing it to haunt a specific person, place or thing. They're often mistaken for ghosts, too." For a moment I wondered when she'd learned all this until I realized. Duh. Sam's a goth, this is her thing.

And then it clicked.

"So whatever ghost that could've been trapped by the gravestone, could've left behind it's aura of say….loneliness?"

Sam nodded. "Any negative emotion can in theory create a poltergeist. Not sure if that counts for ghost emotions, too, but who knows? Maybe it's just built up emotion that will dissolve over time."

Jazz nodded. "She's got a point. His ghost sense went off, but it obviously wasn't a ghost, right? Maybe he's just sensing the ghost that was there because it was there for a really long time."

"And the heat could've been from a fire core." I added.

It all made sense and yet it didn't. It didn't quite feel right, but it did make sense. To an extent.

That intense loneliness could've created a void in the ghost, an emptiness that imprinted on the grave when it got released, and in it's attempt to fill the void, that emptiness would've sucked in the light; but it should've sucked in the heat too. Light and heat go hand in hand. Fire creates light, light creates heat, . But it didn't. It radiated heat, it didn't suck the heat from the air around it like it should've.

And on top of that, a ghost's core shouldn't imprint. Consciousness would make sense, but a core? Once the core is removed, whatever power it generates is removed as well, and on top of that, most ghosts can control their core. It wouldn't be a subconscious thing.

Then there was the other feeling. Like whatever it was, wasn't all there. Yeah, I guess that could've been part of the imprinted emptyness, but something tells me it has nothing to do with it.

I wrote it off for the night. We'd continued walking after the fire core comment, all just assuming we were right and that the 'poltergeist' would dissolve on it's own if given the time. I wasn't convinced, but I also wasn't in any hurry to spend what little vacation I had out hunting a mystery beast. Gravity Falls was used to this kind of stuff, and there were hundreds of ghost hunters gathered in one place. If it turned out to be anything big, someone's equipment was bound to pick it up.

Right?

The next day we went to the Mystery Shack to collect Dipper and Mabel and head to the gates of hell itself; the convention tent. Wendy and Jazz stayed at the shack, and I wished I could've too. A ghost walking into a hall filled with armed ghost hunters? Not what you'd really call fun.

"So, Danny." Dipper spoke up suddenly. He was quiet since we got there, eyeing me carefully when he thought I wasn't looking. "What's your opinion on zombies?"

"Zombies?" I paused to think. "They're cool, I guess. Depends on how they're portrayed in movies. Sometimes they're scary, other times they're just pathetic."

"And witches?"

"I dunno, I guess it depends on the kind of witch." He raised his eyebrow at that, and I explained that "In every movie they've got different powers, brew-based, wands, books, all these different ideas on how to cast spells and stuff. Different alliances and goals. And then there's the zombie witch." I thought that would get some sort of smile or laugh or something, but nothing. He just looked away, probably thinking again. I must be losing my touch.

"Wizards?"

Wizards? What the heck? Is this mythological Monday or something? Well, disregarding the fact that it's a Wednesday.

"What is this about?" I finally asked. Dipper looked startled.

"W-What do you mean?" He asked suspiciously, obviously caught off-guard with the question.

"I mean, you're at a ghost convention, and you haven't asked a single thing about ghosts to the one person here who actually knows anything about ghosts." This earned a couple of annoyed grunts from my two best friends, temporarily distracted from their own discussions, and probably would've earned a third if my sister had been there. "In fact you're asking about everything _but _ghosts, what gives?"

He sighed, and looked relieved. Apparently I had been digging in the right direction but missed the gold and dug up a rock instead. "Just wondering." He replied nonchalantly. "Here in Gravity Falls we get a lot of weird stuff like that, so I just wanted to know what people outside of town thought of these things."

I raised an eyebrow then shrugged. Wizards? Witches? Zombies? Something tells me that he's not just asking these questions for small talk. Does he think I'm a zombie or something? That's different.

And dangerously close to my real secret. This means he doesn't think I'm human. Great, now I have to be even more careful around him. I internally scowled at that thought.

"What about Loup-Garous?" The interrogation continued, successfully breaking me from my inner turmoil.

"Loowhat?" I was beyond confused. "We already passed the bathrooms." That got Mabel laughing and I heard a chuckle or two from Sam, while Tucker was just as confused as I was.

"A Loup-Garou is a French werewolf, able to shift on demand and fully conscious." Sam explained. "Also, you're the expert on ghosts here." She playfully jabbed my arm. "You answer Mabel's bazillion questions, I'll talk werewolves to little bear."

That got a chuckle out of me. "Fine, fine. Just don't corrupt the poor kid. I doubt goth-rehab can take anymore." I joked as we walked out of a tent and into a ghost-hunting firing range. Perfect. Just what I need. To accidentally get shot by weapons that have no effect on humans.

I lagged back a little, and Mabel noticed and lagged with me, while Tucker and Sam took this opportunity to practice their aim without drawing any suspicions. Dipper went with them, much to my relief. His questions were starting to worry me. Did he think I was a werewolf or something? What the heck did I do to make him suspicious?

"Aren't you coming?" She asked me.

"Nah, if these people are anything like my folks, then knowing my luck, I'll just end up getting shot." She giggled and we walked over the a nearby bench that was pretty far out of the way of any targets. If somebody wanted to shoot me, they'd have to try pretty darn hard. "What about you? Aren't you going to shoot?"

"I was thinking about it, buuuuuuuuut, why would I need to shoot a ghost weapon when I have a.." She dug into her bag and pulled out a… "Grappling hook!"

I couldn't help but chuckle at that. "Where the heck did you get a grappling hook?"

"Grunkle Stan let me have it. Apparently the Mystery Shack sells them."

"Better not let Sam see that, or you might not have it for long." I warned.

"Don't worry, I'll just pull a Batman before she grabs it." She said aiming the metal claw towards a tree overhanging the targets.

"So. Does that make Dipper Alfred?"

"You better believe it." She said with a huge grin.

Which I returned with a grin of my own. "And here I thought you were the older one."

"Well fine. I guess he's Robin then. Eitherway he's my slave." We both laughed at that, and then sat in a comfortable silence for a bit.

Which I then broke. "What's with Dipper?" I asked as he looked back to watch me for what had to be the tenth time since we sat down.

"He seems to have gotten this crazy idea about you, and thinks you're some weird thing." Her eyes seemed to light up. "You're not a Vampire, are you?" She asked excitedly.

I chuckled nervously, "No, can't say that I am."

"Oh well." She seemed to give up on that.

"Can I ask where he got that idea?" Hopefully I can figure out what got him suspicious in the first place and avoid doing it again in the future.

"Nowhere really, just a bunch of little things. The allergy to Blood Blossoms, your reaction to the rock thing Grunkle Stan bought, and then he went off on a wild tangent involving all sorts of things that made pretty much no sense at all. I think he's just paranoid after the whole, my-boyfriend-is-a-bunch-of-gnomes thing." She started to laugh. "I mean, he thought you were a ghost! How ridiculous is that?"

"R-really ridiculous haha." I tried not to sound awkward, and either I succeeded or Mabel ignored it. He already guessed at me being a ghost? I'd better keep my guard up around him. I know he already dismissed the idea, what with the whole French werewolf incident, but better safe than sorry.

It was around this point in the conversation that my friends decided they were done with shooting crudely painted pictures of my face, aka the target, and returned to bless us with their presence. And I couldn't mentally thank them enough. I mean, what would I have done if Mabel continued that little thought and asked 'Wait, you're not a ghost, are you?'

We walked through the rest of the tents set up, spotting several ghost themed booths including but not limited to, Ghost Bingo which spelt out Ghost and the hole punches used to punch the cards were shaped like tiny ectoguns; Name that Specter, consisting of a menagerie of ghosts from popular media; and the ever popular Burn the Tail off the Ectoplasmic Scum! Where you had to blindly fire a weapon towards the moving ghost shaped piñata. Luckily, that last one was secured behind Plexiglas.

We stopped at a couple vendors where Mabel and Dipper spent away buying T-shirts (a sweater in Mabel's case), and cute souvenirs that they could easily fit in their pockets. Sam and Tucker bought some trinkets too, little ghost goblets and pendants and beer coozies and stuff. With their bags cleaned out from yesterday's excursion at the Mystery Shack, it provided them with more room to fill with absolute junk.

The only thing I got was a tiny wisp keychain light. The little guy was obviously green, one of the blob ghosts only sporting a head, arms and tail. His eyes and mouth being the lights, and the power switch was the tail. Not that I needed a flashlight or anything, I mean, I had a few built in, but still. It was kinda cute.

And it was at that moment I thought to grab another one for Danielle whenever I saw her. Hers was orange. I'm sure she'd like it.

Not long after the vendors, we stopped for some food; the hotdogs sporting the ever appetizing, green ectoplasm-ketchup, the mustard was, somehow, white, and the relish stayed the same because it was already green. The bun was dusted with flour to give it that natural ghost glow.

Sad to say, I wasn't impressed. Once you're attacked by real ghost hotdogs, imitations just don't live up to it.

We all got hotdogs and hamburgers, save for Sam, who naturally opted for a more vegetarian diet, consisting of a veggie burger and fries. Pretty much all green with the ghost-glow flour. And of course Tucker got four hamburgers, combined them and made a 'super burger' as he called it.

It was really just an excuse to eat four patties and not the buns.

After the food and a trip to the restrooms, we headed toward the exit, taking real care not to be spotted by my parents while we snuck past their seminar.

Turns out we wasted two hours there. Who knew?

Leaving out a small hole in the rear of the massive tent, we ended up pretty far out of the way of the road, and we were still trying to regain our bearings and figure out what direction to go, when… "AHHH! A SIGNAL!" And there goes Tucker.

We tried to keep up, which wasn't all that hard considering it was Tucker who we were chasing, and I almost bumped into him when he stopped.

"Huh? What?" He said tapping on his PDA and turning it over in his hands. "The power just shut off! This thing had a full battery, what gives?!"

A shiver went down my spine, and my ghost sense went off. I started looking around for the source of the ghost but didn't see anything. Apparently my behavior was very suspicious because Dipper questioned it.

"What are you doing?" He asked, successfully drawing the attention of everyone in the group to me, just as my ghost sense went off again. Great, if he didn't see it before, he definitely saw it now.

I opened my mouth to speak as if I didn't notice the blue wisp, when a low growl from off in the distance cut me off. We turned around to face the noise, and watched as darkness began to close in from the woods to our right. Some of the plants began to shrivel up, like the very life force was being sucked out of them. It was then that I noticed that it was silent except for our breathing. No birds. Nothing.

The universal sign for something really bad is about to happen.

It was getting hard to tell that it was only five O'clock by the way the darkness hung from virtually everything, mutating the landscape into a horrid arena of death and darkness. The smell of burnt foliage and hair crept it's way through the trees in a way that seemed suffocating, as if it were thick smoke, and not just a scent.

Black fire crept towards us, along the ground; burning more brightly around the tree trucks and certain areas in the path, which seemed to look like thick claws in the dirt. I can't describe the flames as anything but pure darkness. You could see it clearly despite everything being near pitch black. And the heat radiating off of them was immense, the closer they got, each burning footstep that approached, closing the ten feet between us and the shadowed form that could now be seen in the center of it all, burned hotter and hotter.

The form seemed to stop for a moment, and it lowered what I assumed was it's head as the black flames broke from it enough to reveal two bright white orbs which didn't radiate any light at all, as if they too absorbed any light except that which they contained. Staring, judging. As if they could sense me, see me, but didn't exactly know what to make of me.

Eyes.

Sam shakily latched onto my arm, and I didn't notice beforehand, but I was shaking too.

Suddenly, the orbs grew brighter, and a blast of heat exploded towards us, rushing over us, threatening to burn us, as the heat got hotter and hotter, I released a wave of cold which began to swirl in the air and fight the oncoming heat wave. Sam only gripped my arm tighter as the two elements fought fiercely around us, to the point where everything felt like we were getting burned. Like the air was so hot it was cold, or it was so cold it was hot.

It was getting hard to breathe now, like the heat was steadily increasing, growing more powerful. And then it stopped. We sat there, staring into those mesmerizing white orbs for minutes, hours; it seemed like forever. Watching. Waiting.

Finally, the beast went to step it's front claws forward, fire licking at the daggers that adorned each limb. I knew this was it, if I backed down now, it would attack.

And I couldn't let that happen.

I matched it. Shifting into a better stance, and lifting my right foot to step forward. Mimicking it.

It's eyes seemed to narrow a fraction as the air around it began to swell, the heat returning little by little, but not as intense as before, passing over us in waves and the darkness that surrounded us seemed to buckle and swirl. The fire leapt higher, and joined the current that was now sweeping around us in the sweltering darkness, which went towards the monster ghost and in one fell swoop disappeared with it. Leaving us alone in the dim lighting of the forest. The entire area was shrouded in a grey-ness, which eerily resembled fog, and the unmistakable smell of sulfur now hung in the air.

The path the flames had walked was still singed dark black, and thick burn marks were seen every several feet, from where it's claws had blackened the earth.

We stood there for several minutes, before any of us dared to move. I released a breath, signaling to the others that it was definitely gone.

Relaxing a little, Tucker collapsed in the dirt, eyes still wide. "W-What was that?" He asked shakily, barely above a whisper. This thing, no. This _ghost_ got to all of us. And I was powerless to stop it.

"I. I-I don't know." I murmured back, before turning my attention to Sam who was still shaking and holding onto my arm for dear life. "Sam?" I spoke a little louder. "Sam, it's gone now."

Her grip tightened and her eyes widened, "I-I have an- an idea." She spoke, as if she didn't hear me at all. "Of what that was." She paused.

"And it is in no way good."

* * *

Danny's POV because shutup.

I wanted it to be in Dipper's at first, but then I also wanted to get across that the boy who fights like, dead-everything is scared of a monster. To show how truly terrifying these things are.

And before you start pestering me about how Mabel and Dipper weren't in the beast's first appearance, they were.

The reason you don't hear about or from them is that Danny is so focused on the best that he completely zoned out on everything. The only reason Sam even registered is because she literally latched onto him.

Seriously, you ever been scared? Ever notice how other people don't really register on your radar when things like that happen? That's what this is.

The aftermath is next chapter, as well as the creature's unveiling, which will reveal a bit more of what happened while Danny was all fear-induced concentration.

Contest to guess the mystery beast is over.

Also, I hate how HTML strike is forbidden on fanfic.

FIRST YOU TAKE INDENTING, NOW YOU TAKE STRIKE. YOU MONSTER, HOW MANY OF OUR FREEDOMS WILL YOU STEAL?!  
/shutup

Until next time!


	4. Revelations

And to the winner go the spoils! Or in this case, winner**s.**

Said winners being:  
syd004  
Shade rose  
Militia the Hedgehog  
freewrider

Your prizes will be given out when PG is finished and I can focus on whatever you requested.

**In other news:**

If you want to draw fanart; no need to ask! The only requirement is that you link me so that I can not only see it, but put your fantastic arts in the comments of the chapter it comes from.

Tri: I try to imagine myself as the character, put myself in their shoes and get them to act as in-character as possible. I can't stand when someone's ooc; it's just a pet peeve of mine P:

And I can't believe you want to draw fanart for this! w Yeah, by all means! And actually, I'm the only one who drew art for PG (aka that little image for the story), I have a few planned, but you're the first to even offer! Thank you!

And to everyone who reviews, thank you so much for all the compliments! You guys make me smile :D

* * *

**Revelations **

"C'mon Sam, a hellhound? That's a little ridiculous even for my standards. I mean, how would a hell beast send off my ghost sense?" I asked as I bandaged her burns. They weren't that bad, only first degree, but I couldn't help but wonder how bad they'd be if I hadn't used my ice powers to keep the heat at bay.

"How could a rock?"

"I…a valid point. But I still think it's a ghost, or whatever you called it, poltergeist." I paused. "Would the thermos work on a poltergeist you think?"

"Well they are considered a type of ghost, so I'd assume so." She paused as I finished up the roll of gauze and went to grab another from the first aid kit carelessly thrown on the floor. "And I'm hoping for our sake you're right."

"What do you mean by that?"

"If it is a hellhound, then we only have to encounter it two more times before it kills us."

"Wait, what?" Tucker questioned, looking up from the PDA he was currently trying to fix without agitating his own burns. The mere presence of that ghost/poltergeist/whatever had fried a few of the wires, causing it to shut off, and probably destroying whatever internet connection he found there in the middle of the woods. Our cellphones fared no better.

"The legend states that if you see a hellhound 3 times, you'll meet an untimely end at the hand of cruel accidents." She informed.

"Then let's leave it alone and let it do what it wants!"

"Tucker, you know we can't do that, that thing could kill someone!"

"Yeah, us!" I ignored him.

"Regardless, I'll be the only one going to catch this thing." Sam gave me a dirty look and was about to protest when I cut her off. "Look at what happened to you guys the last time we met it. You're both covered in burns, and so are Mabel and Dipper. If I end up in an all out fight with this thing, I don't want you getting hurt any worse than you already are. Imagine if I wasn't using my ice powers to shield us, how bad do you think those burns would have been then, huh?"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, then at the still uncovered burns littering their skin. Most of which were covered with burn cream, and had been getting bandaged only moments before.

"And besides, I'm already half-dead, so I'd have a better chance of surviving a third encounter." I picked up the bandages again and went back to finish Sam's arms. "Not that I'm saying this is a hellhound." I quickly added. "I just don't want you guys taking the risk if there is something like that in it's power."

"Well, you're not going anywhere without the Fenton Phones." Sam glared at me, proving her point. "We need to stay in contact, in case something happens."

"Alright, I'll bring the Fenton Phones, and a thermos. Anything else?" I asked as I quickly switched over to bandaging Tucker's arms. Mabel and Dipper got the least of the burns, since they were standing behind us, but had both passed out shortly after it had come and gone and had both yet to wake up.

The advantages of dealing with ghosts on a daily basis, I guess. It didn't take us long to regain our composure after it's initial disappearance, though we did wait there several minutes to be sure we wouldn't come across it again on the way back to the GAV to gather up some medical supplies before heading to the Mystery Shack where we were now.

When we got here, we quickly set to work getting Dipper and Mabel's burns treated and set them in bed so they could rest. We'd spend the night if we had to, but we weren't going to leave them alone after what just happened. That was two hours ago.

"Anything you feel you need." She responded as I packaged up the remnants of the first aid supplies and shoved it haphazardly back into the kit.

Reaching into the bag she filled with weapons, and anything useful she could find from the RV, I pulled out the newly modified Fenton Phones, which now sported a tiny camera on the right one, and the flat receiver which greatly resembled Jazz's missing iPad. Handing the receiver to Tucker, I dug out two thermos' and strapped both of them to me. "Better bring two. Just in case."

We tested out the phones before I left, made sure everything worked, and then I headed out. The Fenton Phones were ghost proof, so we shouldn't have the same problem as Tucker's PDA.

I hoped.

~-linebreak-~

I wasted no time after Danny left, quickly switching off the mic and heading downstairs to the shop part of the Mystery Shack, "We've gotta find some more information on hellhounds, Tucker. I'm almost positive that's what that is."

"Well, why didn't you tell Danny that? You just kinda dropped it." We got down the steps and headed straight for the bookshelf.

"You know Danny, he's stubborn. It wasn't worth trying to argue. He wouldn't have listened anyways." I reasoned as I flipped through the pages of the first bestiary I saw. In all reality, I was sure he didn't believe me to begin with. There were still a lot of holes in my theory, but it fit better than a poltergeist. This thing, in only a matter of minutes was able to completely render all of us immobile and probably would've killed us if it weren't for Danny's ice powers. A poltergeist isn't known for that. They're generally the cause of small things, items going missing, freak accidents, items flying off the shelves, and they were never known to control any element or even take a physical form.

"Sam, I'm sure if it was you making the argument, he would've listened. Especially since you were dead serious about it." Closing the book, I sat down to have better access to the lower shelves after sending a quick glare Tucker's way.

"Pun not appreciated, Tucker." I said as I laid the book on the ground beside me, deeming it useful.

"Sorry." He paused and handed the book he currently held to me to place in the pile I started and grabbed another which he quickly put back. "Don't you think it's dangerous sending him out to find it though? And when we aren't near the receiver?"

"That's why we have to hurry. There's no way he would've let us tag along because of what happened last time, especially since for the most part, we'd be dead weight. But if we can figure out why it's here and what it wants, then maybe he can stall it long enough for us to find a way to get rid of it for good." I grabbed the pile of now 4 books and turned to go upstairs, "Let's go before we get caught. I doubt Stan would be too pleased with us borrowing the merchandise."

When we got upstairs, we were met by another surprise. Dipper and Mabel were awake, at the desk and watching Danny flying around.

"What's going on? Who's this guy?" Mabel asked, clearly confused. "Does he have anything to do with that monster we saw last night?"

Before we could stop ourselves, both me and Tucker rushed forward with a firm "NO!" The last thing we wanted was for them to think Danny was the bad guy here.

Our yells caused them both to jump, and I interrupted them before they could speak. "He's a friend, don't worry about it."

Dipper raised an eyebrow but then scanned the pile of books I had. "What's with the books? Did you buy all of those?"

"Huh? No. But we need them." I walked over to the desk and set the books down, turning the mic on. "How's it going?"

"Depends on how you look at it. I haven't found it yet, so that's bad; but on the other hand, maybe it's gone."

"Trust me, it's not gone." I paused as he asked what I meant, to which I replied, "We'll keep in touch." And I turned our end of the mic off again. We could still hear his protests and confused yammering over the speakers, but we ignored it as I turned my attention back to the twins. "We have a big problem so we had to call in some help." I pointed to the books, "And we'll return these after we get the information we need." I looked back to them, "How are you feeling?"

Mabel smiled, "Better than last night, that's for sure!"

"What are you looking up?" Dipper asked, completely ignoring my question. "The monster from last night?"

I sighed and looked at Tucker, who nodded and turned to them. "We think it was a hellhound." He said, gaining the full attention of the siblings. "The problem is, we only know a handful of things about them."

Dipper rubbed his chin in thought at that. Strange. He paced a few times before a look of realization came over him and he turned back to us. "I have something that'll help, but you have to answer some questions. _Truthfully._ I don't appreciate all those lies you've been feeding us." I gulped. He knew we were lying? About what? When?

"Depends on how vital this information is." I spoke. If this was about Danny's secret, there was no way I was giving it up over something that probably wouldn't do us any good.

"I have a book that was written by someone here all about the weird happenings of Gravity Falls, that I found in the woods and have been using as a guide. It has tons of first-hand information and it hasn't failed me yet. If there's any information that will help shed some light, it would be in that book." He paused. "And I remember seeing a section about demon beasts."

This seemed like our best bet. These other books would only have snippets of second-hand rumors, but if this book was a first-hand account of someone who's lived here, then this was information we couldn't pass up. "Fine. We'll answer your questions." I said after moments of careful consideration.

Hellhounds were nothing to joke about, I knew that much, and if it was Danny's secret or the lives of everyone here, then sorry Danny, but your secrets out. Tucker looked to me, apparently having come to the same conclusion. "But nothing leaves this room. Got it?"

"Got it." Dipper said running to his bed and grabbing the book from under his pillow. "The fact that we even have this book, or that the book exists stays here too."

"The only person besides the four of us here who'd know would be Danny." Tucker explained. "There's no way we're leaving him out of the loop on this."

"Fine." He paused, placing the book on the desk and pulling up a trunk to sit on. "Where is Danny right now, anyway?"

"Around." I said. It wasn't a lie. I couldn't say he was nearby, because he wasn't. I couldn't say he was anywhere, actually. Dipper already seemed suspicious of something, and he knew we were lying at some point too. I was trapped, the boy was probably already suspicious of everything, and no matter what I said, it'd only make him more suspicious. He was obviously a smart kid, you could tell by the bargain he made, setting it up so we'd have to answer what he asked and making sure we knew he caught us in a lie before.

He seemed to take the answer for now, and moved on. "What are you hiding?" Bam. He jumped straight to a question that told us all we needed to know. He was suspicious of Danny.

"Everybody has secrets." I answered, avoiding his real question. "We're hiding as much as the next person."

"That wasn't what I asked. I asked what it was you were hiding."

"A secret." Was all I said. None of it were lies, so I wasn't breaking the rules of the agreement. It's also the reason Tucker was silent. He'd accidentally blurt something out if any of it was directed at him, and he knew that.

Narrowing his eyes a little, Dipper accepted the answer and asked one a little more accusing. "What is Danny?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, trying to feign him out. He caught on, just what I was hoping wasn't the case. Tucker gulped, he knew it too. We both did. He was going to learn Danny's secret before long. But what gave it away?

"What is he?" He repeated.

"That's not our question to answer." I finally said. "You'll have to ask him yourself." The perfect answer, he'd have to drop the topic after that and ask something else. That is, if Tucker's eyes hadn't instinctively wandered over to the screen to check up on Danny.

"Is that him?" he asked, nodding to the screen. Damnit Tucker.

I wracked my brain for a few minutes before giving in. I sighed. "Yes." I waited too long to deny it, trying to find a loophole and answer truthfully like we agreed, but there was no way out. We were caught.

His eyes widened, apparently he just guessed at it and was doubting it himself. Stupid. I should've denied it when I had the chance instead of trying to figure out another way to answer the question.

"So he's a ghost?" Mabel asked. "Holy sweat socks, you were right." she muttered more towards Dipper than anyone. So he actually guessed Danny was a ghost? He's smarter than I gave him credit for. We've only been here a day, and he already figured out what an entire town couldn't over the course of a year.

"Half-ghost, actually." Tucker corrected. "He's Danny Phantom, the one in the stories we told you."

"But that's not important right now." I said grabbing the book and flipping through it. "Stopping this hellhound is the real goal here. We'll explain everything else later." Taking the book from me, Dipper flipped through to the right page and laid it on the table.

"Says here that hellhounds come in three varieties, Guardians, Destroyers and Hunters. Hunters will actively seek out specific cursed individuals, usually at the command of something else. Guardians are often benevolent and kind, even so much as to help weary travelers find their way back to a path if they'd become lost. If whatever a Guardian is protecting is threatened however, it instantly becomes ferocious. Destroyers are hellhounds that were once Guardians. If for whatever reason the Guardian lost it's treasure and was separated from it, it would become enraged and cause senseless destruction and death to anything unlucky enough to cross it's path."

"Does it say how to get rid of them?" I asked.

"Only the Destroyers. And that would be to reunite it with whatever it's looking for. The Guardians will disperse on their own when their protection was no longer required, and Hunters can only be called back by the one who summoned them."

I was about to ask about what the hellhound could possibly be after, since it was clear this wasn't a guardian, when a shout came from the speakers beside me. Dipper and Mabel ran around the table to get a better view, only to see the hellhound. Flames now dispersed, we could see the creature for what it really was.

A large snarling dog, about the size of a bear, stood before Danny, it's black fur flaring up, as if it was one with the flames. It's face contorted into a snarl, revealing teeth that resembled rusty nails, and dripping a line of drool, which pooled into the dirt and sizzled. The soulless eyes staring straight at Danny, watching his every move. There was no sign of pupils or even the sclera, the entire eye was a round white orb, like a pair of headlights on a car.

And then we saw the claws. Four 6 inch daggers hung off it's front claws, with black flames dripping off the long fur at the back of the leg. There were five black spines that looked to be the same material jutting out of it's back along the spinal cord, down to the base of the tail which was on fire as well.

It seemed that anywhere there was long fur, fire seemed to creep off it, as if the entirety of fur was nothing but fire, despite being easily recognizable as fur.

Suddenly, it lunged, missing Danny by an inch with those claws and tearing into the earth, burning whatever it made contact with, it spoke up with several voices, one very deep one that seemed to lead the others and spoke very venomously, surrounded by the screaming pained wails of what I assumed were lost souls of the damned. "WHERE IS IT." It demanded.

"Where is what!?" Danny yelled as it lunged again, snagging the leg of his hazmat with one of it's claws and pulling him down. He phased through the ground and appeared behind it, shooting ectoblasts which didn't seem to do anything to it. In fact, it calmly turned around, like a tiger eyeing a bird with a broken wing.

It was toying with him.

"Guys, my ghost rays aren't doing anything!" He shouted, turning intangible as it lunged again, only instead of passing through him, it hit him square in the chest and tackled him to the ground. "AUGH!"

"Dipper! Does it have any weaknesses?" I turned on the mic immediately after asking, "Danny! Did you try the thermos?"

He phased into the ground and the camera went black for about a minute before he spoke again. "It sucked all the energy out of it!" He gasped, climbing up out of the ground and shooting the hellhound with the spare thermos he'd brought, only to see that the light it generated was sucked into the beast and the thermos rendered useless.

I looked over at Dipper who shook his head, obviously not finding anything useful on the topic. "Danny do you have any salt on you?" I asked quickly as he continued to dodge the beast's attacks, taking no chances for error.

"Salt? No. Why?"

"Nevermind, what about pinecones, do you see any pinecones?"

He looked around and ducked into the earth, popping up only to grab a few off the forest floor that was now singed and covered with ash. "Why pinecones?" he asked.

"Arrange them in a circle around you!" I shouted, utterly confusing him, but he obeyed, quickly making a ring of pinecones with him at the center. "Pinecones ward off evil, and rings have been known to create a border they can't cross." I paused, then remembering the tiny tidbit I'd forgotten to mention. "Oh, and you can't cross it either, ghost boy."

"What?!"

"Rings of salt and well, other things like blood blossoms and pinecones, prevent anything dead from crossing it. There's a bit more to it than that, but basically ghosts are effected by it and I don't know if you would be in human form or not." I smiled sheepishly, forgetting he couldn't see me, slightly embarrassed that I didn't tell him such vital information beforehand.

But at least he was safe.

The hellhound eyed the pinecones warily, moving in closer before it lunged. Danny hit the back of the ring, and a white wall of energy shot up preventing his escape. The same happened at the front of the ring, but the fire from the hellhound's paws were burning into the energy, and eventually began drawing it in. Sucking away the barrier.

"SAM! IT'S NOT WORKING!" He yelled in a panic. One by one as each pinecone lost it's energy, it was burnt to a crisp and the flames flickered, as if they were replenishing it's strength.

"Um, ah,," I thought frantically. "Try turning human and running through it!" He did what I said and fell backwards right out of it.

As soon as he realized he was out he looked back at the hellhound who seemed to notice the same thing and began struggling to get free of the barrier. Only to burn through the pinecones more rapidly. It was trapped until every pinecone was sucked dry.

"Danny! Run!" I shouted. "It's stuck!" As soon as the words reached his ears, he turned back into Phantom and bolted.

* * *

Also, I'm sorry for the delay in update. I planned to post this last week since I had it already written, all I had to do was go in and revise.

**YOU HAD ONE JOB, WOMAN.**

**ONE. JOB.**

Anyway, so I have no idea how long it'll take for me to get the next chapter out, because I still have to catch up on my Gravity Falls, and I have a job now, which is taking up some of my writing time.

However, I have no intention of letting this story die. Ever.

I do know that it won't be updated until November at least. Halloween is my favorite holiday and I have much to prepare. When in November I will update, is still a mystery.

Just giving you a heads up, is all.

And who liked Sam's POV? This should be the only part not in Danny or Dipper's POV. Things may change though.

P.S. I really am not satisfied with this page at all, but I'm exhausted. I'll get around to fixing it/adding more detail come chapter 5. I honestly cannot think right now so trying to revise this again will do me no good. Who knows, maybe it'll grow on me. Or maybe I can get away with it by making the next chapter super special awesome with fantastic sprinkles and some better-than-thou brand name syrup. /oryoucanshutupandgotobedyous tupidwench.


	5. Distractions

MERRY CHRISTMAS

-this update is my gift to you wonderful people-

Oooooh my gosh I'm sorry it took so long to update!

-One, I've been a veery lazy person,  
-Two, I have to figure out how I'm gonna wrap this story up. Gravity Falls is known for it's unexpected endings, and I want to live up to that, and also add in more hellhound lore. And I _really_ don't want to bullshit any chapters. And on top of that, I have a LOT of ideas I need to get straightened out. There are a million ways this could end, and I only get one.  
-Three, Life is not something you can really predict, so obviously some things have gone awry and gotten in my way. Thank you for being patient.

Also, dear guest(s), I am well aware of what month it is, I don't need a reminder. If you would like to remind me and/or ask what's taking so long, make an account and send me a PM, or at the very least, comment while logged in, so I can give you a heads up. While I appreciate your interest in my story, I can't stand being rushed, and with no way to reply back, it becomes a real irritation.

And as a general notice pertaining to the above issue; I don't like getting your hopes up with author updates instead of chapters, so please don't get my hopes up with anonymous prodding instead of reviews. If you ever feel I'm taking too long on a chapter, feel free to contact me so I can get back to you as soon as possible, rather than with the next chapter. I rarely bite. Please and Thank you.

Anywayivetakenupenoughofyour timeso  
LET'S GET THIS SHOW ON THE ROAD

* * *

**Distractions**

"Okay, so maybe it is a hellhound!" I heard frantically shouted through the Fenton phones as Danny ran for his life, the strangled cries and howls of the beast becoming more enraged in the distance. "What do we do?!"

The four of us abandoned our home base set up on the second floor of the Mystery Shack and bolted for the Go-Kart parked outside so we could pick up Danny before that thing caught up with him.

"I'm figuring that out right now!" Sam shouted back before stopping mid-stride and running back into the house for something, leaving the shack just as we made it into the cart and started it up (using the presidents key I kept with me rather than wasting time searching for the real ones). We're lucky it really does work on _any _lock. She jumped in the back and opened up a new container of salt before looking to her childhood friend. "Tucker, got the tracking device?"

Tucker raised up a boomerang, thoroughly confusing me, what good would _that _do? "Got it."

"Dipper, drive around the shack a couple times!" Sam ordered, leaning over the back of the vehicle with the salt. Catching on, I stepped on the gas, digging up some of the grass as the wheels gained traction. The salt poured out thickly, as we circled the place three times.

"We good?" I asked as Sam hauled herself back into the vehicle.

"Yeah. Tucker, throw it!" He obeyed, and the mechanical boomerang flew through the air with a green light, spinning a few times before the light changed color and it took off, us not far behind.

The ride there was quiet, but it was far from silent. Sam and Tucker seemed distressed, and I wouldn't blame them. If it was Mabel or Wendy or anybody I knew in that situation, I'd be distressed too. I could only imagine the thoughts that were running through their heads. 'Was he okay?' and 'How are we going to dispel a hellhound?' were the two currently running through my own.

Tucker was the first to speak however, voicing the second-loudest thought in my mind. "What _are _we gonna do?" He looked to Sam. "You're the expert on this stuff, what _do _we do?"

Sam looked deep in thought from what I could see in the mirror. I couldn't chance taking my eyes off the road for too long though. After a few moments, she spoke. "I don't know. Nobody knows how to dispel a hellhound." She took a deep breath and let it out, to calm herself. "I guess we start from the top and work out some theories. What type of hellhound is it? We know it's not a guardian; so that leaves Destroyer and Hunter."

Tucker continued the train of thought as Danny came into view. "Hunter sounds more likely if it's after Danny. You think Vlad deals in demonology?" Not even coming to a full stop, we slowed down enough for Danny to get in before heading back toward the shack.

Collapsing into the back seat with Sam and Tucker, Danny was breathless as Sam started to look at his wounds. I chanced a look back. His chest had large burn marks from where the claws impacted him, still seething red from the fire, the rest of the area was charred a light grey, either from the remains of his suit or the actual burn that littered his chest. Needless to say, it looked like it hurt.

As if on cue, Danny asked with a strained chuckle. "How bad does it look?"

"You look like shit, but you've looked worse." Tucker replied with an unsure grin, Sam looked to be busy cleaning his injuries and beginning to bandage them.

Sam nodded but instead of continuing the conversation about his injuries turned it back to the more important topic, obviously satisfied with Danny's condition. "But if it was Vlad who summoned it, why would it attack Danny? Hellhounds kill, they don't abduct, Vlad doesn't want Danny dead."

"What does Vlad have to do with any of this?" Danny questioned, carefully sitting up in the seat between his two friends.

"We're thinking the hellhound was summoned and he's the only one who would summon it." Tucker explained before Sam broke the silence.

"I don't think that's something he'd pull though. Ghosts are one thing, demons are another matter entirely."

I looked off the road for only a few seconds, to follow the conversation, and I really wished I hadn't, for when I looked back, it was to Mabel's scream as the all too familiar black flames cut off our usual route back. A sharp turn almost slid us into the firey barrier, the cart wheels kicking up dirt as they strained to pull us in any direction but the one we were currently headed.

The cart lurched forward, running along the now stretching fire as we were herded away from our sanctuary, the heat from the flames too close for comfort.

I pulled the cart away from the blaze as we were sent barreling through the forest path and towards the lake, fire licking at the foliage as an all too familiar beast came into view in the mirror.

"Hey, guys…." I called nervously, hoping they'd get the message. I looked back to see them sprawled out, gripping whatever part of the cart they could, probably from the initial jerk of the vehicle. Mabel seemed to be more focused on the road ahead of us, rather than the monster chasing after us.

As if on cue, the three of them looked back to see the hellhound gaining on us with each leap, its powerful claws gripping the earth and propelling it forward with a crazy amount of speed. In a matter of minutes, it was at the back of the cart. I swerved to the right to avoid a large claw from slashing the back of the cart only to have to turn the car around as the path we were now on was engulfed in fire. The hellhound jumped at us and nearly got the right side of the tailgate as we lurched left and through a couple charred trees that collapsed just as soon as we'd passed it.

In all honesty, I'm not sure how it hadn't caught us yet. Yes, this wasn't the dingy little golf-cart we destroyed during the gnome incident, but this wasn't a racecar either.

~-linebreak-~

"So then the guy rips off his helmet and blah blah, blah blah blah." Was all Jazz heard out of Robbie who had joined her and Wendy at some point during their day. The topic had quickly gone from a little backstory about each girl's respective homes and the daily life they dealt with; to Robbie, his band, and horror movies as soon as the guy showed up.

As much as she hated to say, she really didn't like this kid. Something about him rubbed her the wrong way, and he kept changing topics and took Wendy's attention away through all of it. She really wanted to know about the ghosts Wendy'd dealt with and how she dispelled them, since it could help her brother out in the future, but every time she got close to the original topic, Robbie would burst in with another stupid one.

"I should've gone with Danny…" Jazz muttered under her breath.

Robbie caught that she said something, but wasn't sure what. He turned to her, "What was that?"

Jazz opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by a frantic beeping and turned to see a go-kart barreling down the dirt path at them, smoke billowing behind them. As it passed something was thrown at her, which she caught, and turned to watch the cart that passed curiously.

"MAKE A RING OF SALT AROUND YOU, QUICK!" The goth she recognized as Sam yelled from the back of the vehicle.

Jazz's attention was brought back to the object in her hands, inspecting it as Wendy spoke, "Was that Dipper and Mabel?"

She looked up from the salt. "And my little brother and his friens-" Her eyes grew wide as she turned to the direction the cart came from and was met with a rampaging ball of flame. "-ssOH MY GOD!" She quickly made a ring of salt around them just as the hellhound reached them and lunged at the freshly made barrier, earning a scream out of the three victims before it was shocked by a white light that traveled up from the grains of salt.

"W-What is that thing!?" Robbie stuttered. He looked about ready to bolt, so Jazz grabbed his arm and held him in place earning a shocked tug from Robbie. "Let go of me!"

"We're safe so long as we're in here. If you promise not to run, I'll let you go." Jazz explained eerily calm. She might not've liked the kid, but that didn't mean she wanted him to die.

With a curt nod from Robbie, she let go of him and turned all her attention to the beast outside the barrier, which was now walking back and forth in front of it, testing it from time to time, trying to figure out a way to get at them; like a tiger in a cage. With a relaxed sigh, Jazz spoke. "Whatever it is, it can't get through, and it knows it."

After a few more seconds of it pacing, the flames began to die down enough to reveal the large bear-like fire demon hiding within.

It's attention didn't falter as the sound of the go-kart got louder.

"We gotta get it away from Jazz!" Danny shouted.

"And Wendy!" I added. I didn't know what else to do, we'd led the hellhound right to them and we couldn't do a thing about it.

"Hey stinkbutt!" Tucker shouted, I turned the cart a little before we got into range, worried it might give chase, but it ignored the insult completely.

"Stinkbutt? That's the best you can do?" Sam deadpanned before turning her attention to the monster. "Dipper, drive around behind it and circle." She ordered, stepping one foot on the back of the cart seat, and gripping the metal support to steady herself as the cart swerved back around towards the danger that we'd barely escaped.

The hellhound was still pacing, completely enthralled by the barrier that it couldn't get through, paying no attention to the incoming cart.

"HEY YOU _POOR EXCUSE FOR A POMERANIAN_!" Sam shouted, cupping her mouth with her hands as the beast took it's eyes off the three shielded teens and looked to the girl who'd just insulted it. "YEAH, I'M TALKIN TO YOU, _SCOOBY DOO_! WHAT, THE BIG SCARY _DOGGY_ CAN'T CATCH A COUPLE KIDS SO HE GIVES UP AND TRIES TO MAUL SOMETHING ELSE? WHAT A _**PATHETIC**_ HELLHOUND, YOU AREN'T EVEN _WORTHY_ OF THAT HORRIBLE STENCH OF YOURS!"

The hellhound turned from the others with a low growl, glaring daggers at the girl who dared to taunt the demon. The heat from it intensified, but the three inside the barrier couldn't feel it. They weren't even fazed by it, instead they were looking incredulously at Sam who was still firing off insults.

"I THOUGHT YOU _MANGY, STUPID MUTTS _DIDN'T STOP UNTIL THEIR PREY WAS DEAD? WHO KNEW YOUR BARK REALLY WAS WORSE THAN YOUR BITE! FOR A MINUTE I WAS SCARED!" A horrible stench filled the air as the salt at the edge of the barrier began to burn as well as the grass and dirt near it, the flames began to burn higher as it turned it's back to the salt shield and watched the cart pass by.

"Sam…" Danny warned, she ignored him.

"AND WHAT'S MORE, YOU CALL THAT HEAT? I'VE SEEN _CANDLES_ WITH MORE FIREPOWER, WHAT ARE YOU, THE DEVIL'S PERSONAL _CIGARETTER LIGHTER_?"

The beast dug it's claws into the dirt, it's fire flaring high, it looked really mad now, and Sam showed no sign of stopping the onslaught. Mabel looked scared as she slunk down into her seat, scared of Sam or the hellhound, I wasn't sure.

"Saaaamm…." Tucker pleaded worriedly, he looked scared out of his mind, as scared as I felt, the heat from the beast becoming hard to bear, which only increased the fear radiating amongst those in the cart. Pure unadulterated fear. How Sam was able to keep insulting it, I'll never know.

"ACTUALLY, I THINK THAT'S GIVING YOU TOO MUCH CREDIT, IS THAT WHY YOU AREN'T IN HELL LIKE YOU BELONG? HE CAN'T STAND TO SEE YOUR UGLY MUG SO HE SENDS YOU TOPSIDE? I DON'T BLAME HIM! IF I HAD TO LOOK AT YOUR FACE EVERYDAY, I'D PROBABLY THROW UP!"

"SAM!" Tucker and Danny shouted simultaneously as they yanked her into the cart.

The hellhound began to howl, the sound of the cursed voices screaming and shouting out along with a deep angry monstrous growl accompanying the brutal howl, I sat there frozen by the sound, it was more frightening than the chase it'd given us.

"DIPPER, DRIVE!" Mabel shouted, slapping my arm. I slammed on the gas immediately, the cart lurched forward again as the hellhound took off after us, a glance to the right and you could see the lake water boiling viciously with the amount of pure heat coming off the thing.

My eyes widened as I noticed it was running faster than before, while we hit our limit, it would catch us in no time.

Jazz took this opportunity to snap out of whatever daze she was in and run out of the barrier shouting, "DANNY, WHAT DID YOU GET THOSE KIDS INTO?!"

"And more importantly, _who_ was _that?"_ She turned to scowl at Robbie who seemed to be more shocked at Sam's gall than the fact they just came face to face with what could only be the equivalent of living death.

Her brother and his friends were staring death in the face, and they just pissed it off.

* * *

To the readers who have so kindly waited patiently, thank you. To all followers and readers, seriously. It means a lot. Even if you're just tuning in, I appreciate your patience, and the fact you've even read this story to begin with.

As a general heads up, once again, I'm not sure when the next update will be. I'll try to update quickly, but now comes the challenge of figuring out how to wrap this all up. Also, sorry it's kinda on the shorter side, thought this was a decent place to stop.


	6. Coming to Terms

Hi everyone!

Thanks so much for all the encouragement and kind words, as well as your patience! As always I appreciate the fact you even read my story to begin with, and that you're sticking with it. Sorry for taking so long to update, I finally got an idea for this that I'm satisfied with, so here's the next chapter!

* * *

**Coming to Terms**

"You didn't have to pull out your entire skillset to insult that thing!" I shouted over the squeals of the bumper behind us that had come loose during the demon dog's attack. "We needed to get its attention not make it angrier!"

I scowled as the cart barreled off onto another woodland path that I assumed would take us towards the shack; hellhound hot on our trails and incoming. The three of us in the back seat were gripping onto whatever surface we could get our hands on to avoid being thrown from the vehicle by one of the many jerks it made. Dipper and Mabel at least had seatbelts, for whatever reason the backseat didn't.

"We had to make sure it'd chase us!" Sam rationalized, just as loud. Ripping her hands off the metal pole and blowing on them she instead grabbed ahold of the seat and looked to me. "And there are far worse things I could've said."

We went over a bump, and felt a surge of heat wash over us. We looked back, me and Sam, anyways. Tucker had his face buried in the back of the front seat.

The heat that had just reached the metal of the cart finally reached the air around it, and the heat form before suddenly felt more like a cool fall breeze than a heatwave.

Sam looked back to me and gave a hesitant grin, smirking in spite of the obvious fear, "Besides, I doubt I'd have another chance to insult a hellhound."

Speaking of; it was about one lunge away from us with it's mouth hanging open and razor sharp teeth gleaming, a line of acidic droll flinging onto the back of the cart and ground behind it as it ran it's tongue over them, likely in anticipation of the kill.

Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a pinecone, good thing I kept a few. I waiting until it lunged forward, intent on catching the cart, and threw it; incorporating enough supernatural force to be sure it hurt. The pinecone successfully hit it square in the forehead with a resounding crack as it broke apart, knocking the hound off balance as a screech erupted from it's throat.

I watched as the monster crashed to the ground, in a crumpled heap, the same magical barrier from the salt and pinecone barriers appeared and encircled the dog's face where it was struck for a moment. It dispersed as the energy grew and came back full force, washing over the canine and leaving it frozen in it's place.

A few moments later and the hellhound was pulling itself to it's feet, not that anybody but me would be able to tell, but still. I took a look back at the road ahead and noticed the mystery shack was in sight, and cursed to myself when I saw a particular set of adults heading into the shack, with their metal monstrosity parked outside.

Of course my parents would take this opportunity to show up.

Speeding up now that the salt barrier was in sight, we drove right over it and parked a few meters away. The hellhound caught up just as we came to a stop and crashed into the barrier with a loud soulful scream, dropping to the ground in a daze.

It stared at us, eyes glazed over, and the fire died down. "What's going on out there!" Stan yelled from the shack, and I turned away from the hound as my parents shot out of the building guns ablazing.

"What he said!" My father shouted, looking around, I followed his gaze and noticed the beast was gone. Next thing I knew he was bounding over to us and I bit back a groan. "Danny! There you are!" I didn't hold back the groan this time. "Was that scream a ghost?"

"Jack, if that was a ghost it was a lot of them. Our sensors should've picked something up." My mother rationalized as she approached at a slower rate. "Hi kids, having fun?"

Before any of us could even think of a response, my dad shouted, "Nonsense, Mads! Our sensors are picking something up! It's gotta be a ghost!"

"In the shack it is, but not out here." Well there was the confirmation. There was no way the dog was a ghost of any kind, though that didn't mean ghosts weren't involved. There was something fishy about that rock, and I'd bet anything that that was what the detectors were picking up. "Anyway, where have you guys been? We were hoping to introduce you to some of the other experts at the convention."

"We were out exploring!" Tucker blurted; "We made some friends and they were showing us around, I mean." Gesturing to the twins beside us, they gave a small wave and quickly introduced themselves.

"Oh, that's sweet. Good to know you're making more friends, sweetheart." My mother responded, directing the phrase at me before turning the conversation back to more pressing matters. "Do you know what the yell was though? Did you see anything? I don't want you kids getting hurt if there's a psycho on the loose."

The three of us exchanged looks, trying to figure out a valid explanation when Sam took up the response. "Oh we were, uh…trying to show Dipper and Mabel what a ghost sounds like, but since we couldn't really do the creepy supernatural feel of it, we just kinda…went with yelling at the same time?"

Tucker and I nodded furiously, and my parents seemed to buy it. My dad slapped Sam on the back and grinned, "See Mads? It was a ghost! I'd know that sound anywhere."

"It was still technically the kids. "My mom turned her attention back to the group of us, shaking her head slightly, "Though I'd say you need to work on it a little bit. Less pitch."

"I thought they did a great job, it was still recognizable as a ghost." My dad praised, to which my mom rolled her eyes.

"I'm not getting into this here, Jack." She looked at us and continued. "We'll be in the Mystery Shack if you need us; the owner has offered to tell us a bit of the history of the town for a discounted price. Be careful."

"We will, don't worry." The three of us chimed out of habit, and we watched my parents walk away and disappear into the shack.

The first thing out of Tucker's mouth when they were out of earshot was, "Wait, your parents have legit arguments about the pitch of a ghost's voice?"

"More like my dad's ability to recognize them." I answered, "Is that really surprising? You know them and how gung-ho my dad can get. We're just lucky he bought that excuse and didn't want us to reproduce our 'ghost call'." Close call indeed, and they didn't have Jazz to help distract them if it came to that.

"Wait, that was your dad? He's huge!" Mabel exclaimed, clearly in awe. "He towers over Grunkle Stan! I think he'd even be a match for Manly Dan! Jeez!"

"That's Jack Fenton for ya. Beware his bear hugs." Sam replied sarcastically, Mabel seemed to take it as more of a warning however and nodded with a grin. She seemed to think it was cool at least.

"Hey guys?" Dipper began, I looked over at him. "Why didn't you ask them for help with this? Maybe they know something that could help." Mabel seemed to agree, probably figuring this was out of their league.

"Yeah, I mean your dad's like as big as the hellhound! He could probably do _something_!"

"You're overestimating my parents. They're brilliant people, but not…" I trailed off looking for the words.

"Smart?" Tucker suggested. I shrugged, it was as good an explanation as any. Anyone who knew my parents could tell they were smart, but they were also from Amity Park, which left a lot of cluelessness in wake.

"That and the three of us are more skilled in ghost knowledge than they are. They know the scientific aspects, while we have more experience. If _we_ can't figure out what to do, I doubt they'd be of any help."

"Not to mention a hellhound isn't a ghost. They might be ghostly, but this isn't their department." Sam explained. She had a good point. As far as I knew, my parents only know about ghosts, wraiths are the farthest things in their category. Demons? Well, even Vlad knew not to dive into that mess. "But I'm more concerned as to why it left."

"Why? It's gone." Tucker offered. "It couldn't get to us so it left. Big deal."

I shook my head, remembering how it froze, "No, Sam might be onto something. Did you guys see how it just sorta started at us?" After the last two times it was faced with a barrier, it's eyes didn't glaze over like it did just now. It was like something was distracting it.

"It disappeared when your parents came out here. Maybe it doesn't like adults?" Dipper suggested.

"I don't think a 300 pound dog from the depths of the netherworld would get cold feet in front of adults, even if they _are_ Danny's parents." That response earned Tucker an elbow to the ribs from me and a chuckle from Sam.

"Maybe it has something to do with your parent's inventions. I mean, the GAV is here, maybe there's a weapon inside that can hurt it." She theorized. It made sense at least, but how would it be able to sense it? I have heightened senses and I can't sense weaponry, just the ectoplasm in the guns.

"My- uh….Phantom's ectoblasts didn't-" I began but Sam cut me off with a 'they know' and a jab at Dipper and Mabel. I got the hint and rephrased, "Fine. My ectoblasts were ineffective. All my parent's weapons are ecto-based. There's not reason it'd stall up for something that's not a threat." I paused. "And how the heck do they know?!"

Mabel and Dipper both flinched when I raised my voice, neither apparently expecting it. "We were more worried about your life than your secret." Tucker started. "Aaaand, Dipper figured it out."

Sam rolled her eyes when I groaned, "That's the gist of it anyway. They know. They won't tell. Can we please get back to the topic of how to not get killed by this thing? We've got to be extra careful now."

"How come?" Mabel asked, "Isn't it just as dangerous as before? What changed?"

Dipper's face seemed to pale, probably coming to the same realization as she did, whatever it was.

"Well…" She started. "Remember how before the twins woke up that hellhounds were dangerous?"

We both nodded. "And that there's common lore for this thing?" We nodded again, a little slower this time as we caught what she was saying. "Remember what I said was the biggest problem with hellhounds?"

I frowned. "Great, so how are we supposed to fight this thing if we can't come in contact with it?"

"We can't! That's the thing! We should just avoid it all together, pack our bags and head back to Amity. I never wanted to mess with this thing in the first place and knowing this, I certainly don't want to mess with it now." Tucker shouted.

"What are you guys talking about?" Mabel demanded, clearly frustrated with being left out of the loop and Dipper looked to her with a grimace.

"Mabel, legend says, that if you see a hellhound three times, you die. We've seen it twice."

* * *

Not sure when the next update will be, but I have some idea of where this is going now. Probably won't be for a little while because I'm hoping there's some object in a future episode of Gravity Falls that I can use as a cameo. If not, I'll make my own; but I like using existing items more. I already have plans for the Crystal Flashlight and a few other in-show items or locations for the final showdown, but it'd be nice to have a few more things from the forest to even it out a bit.

Turns out this story's gonna be longer than I thought.  
Considering this is chapter 6 when my original goal was 5 chapters, I can't say I'm all that surprised.


	7. --Really Important Authors Notice--

**Alright, I hate doing these author note craps because it gets your hopes up for a chapter update, but this is important.**

**My dad's in critical condition and he almost died tonight. **

**He's been in and out of the hospital for a while now, for surgery and the like, and I was trying to balance two jobs on top of that, hence why I've been really slow to update, and again, I'd like to apologize since I'm updating much less than I'd like, but as much as I'd like to finish this story, it's not priority, and I'm not shitting my way through chapters.**

**Now I'm ****_not_**** stopping the story, ****_by no means am I giving up on it_****, but as of right now I'm officially turning the creative slump/busy time into a hiatus. **

**There are two ways this hiatus can end;**

**1- My dad pulls through, and I work on the next two chapters as soon as he's home, stable, and everything's in order, which ****_could_**** be as soon as three weeks.**

**2-My dad does not pull through, and I'm gonna apologize right now, but you won't hear from me again until the grieving period is up, which may be half a year or more.**

**I appreciate everyone who's taken the time to read my story to date, and kept with me despite my slow updates as I figured out the plot, and I'd like to thank those of you who'll stay with me throughout the hardships and await the next chapters with earnest.**

**I have not forgotten about the contest winners, but again, I can't work on those until the story's done, and at this rate, I'm going to have to open commissions because I'm taking time off work and we're having trouble with hospital bills and college supplies I'll need for August. So there's no chance of getting any done during downtime at the hospital.**

**I have few hours in both jobs, and as such, no money. All of it goes right into food, gas, and other necessities, if not for us, the animals. And as much as I love my hobbies, I can't afford the internet and other unnecessary conveniences such as art supplies without money. **

**If anyone is interested in commissioning me, I'll put up commission info sometime tomorrow on my blog, grayescale .tumblr .com, but it'll forsure be up on the 29th so long as nothing bad happens with my dad tomorrow. **

**Mostly the commissions will be art, but I'll have a few written ones for the phanfic fanatics.**

**I think that just about covers everything going on in my life so far.**

**Dad in hospital, two jobs, college in the fall, commissions, broke; I don't think I missed anything.**

**Thank you all for understanding, and I'll see you all as soon as things stabilize, which is hopefully sooner than later.**


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